Saquon Barkley’s departure from one NFC East team to another gave Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni the opportunity to deliver a scathing riposte to rival fans who yell “Go Giants” at him.
“I usually let it go,” Sirianni says, “but if they treat me well enough, I usually say, ‘You know what, I’ve got your best player.’
Barkley was one of several notable running backs who changed teams for the first time during the offseason. The list also includes Washington’s Austin Ekeler (formerly of the Los Angeles Chargers), Baltimore’s Derrick Henry (Tennessee), Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs (Las Vegas), Minnesota’s Aaron Jones (Green Bay), Houston’s Joe Mixon (Cincinnati) and Tennessee’s Tony Pollard (Dallas). All except Ekeler made the Pro Bowl with their original teams.
“It feels like a fresh start,” said Barkley, who spent six seasons in New York. “I feel like I’m a rookie again.”
Recent history suggests Barkley and other running backs who move teams may struggle to match the production they had with their original franchises.
Per SportRadar, only three players have rushed for at least 1,200 yards with multiple teams since 2010: LeSean McCoy (Philadelphia, Buffalo), DeMarco Murray (Dallas, Tennessee) and Christian McCaffrey (Carolina, San Francisco). Barkley, Henry, Jacobs and Mixon could add to that list.
That’s a pretty steep dropoff considering that from 2000-2009, the No. 2 franchise had 14 different players rush for 1,200 yards.
“A big reason is that running backs aren’t valued as highly these days,” said McCoy, who now co-hosts the FS1 sports talk show “Speak.” “Back then (the early 2000s), there was an emphasis on getting the ball to the running back. There was an emphasis on only having one running back. Now, unless you’re a top-tier player, you’re splitting carries.”
McCaffrey moved into some special company last season by becoming just the fourth running back in history to be named first-team All-Pro by multiple teams — the others being Cookie Gilchrist (Buffalo, Denver), Eric Dickerson (Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis) and Jerome Bettis (Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers).
Henry and Jacobs are looking to join that ranks. Henry earned All-Pro honors with Tennessee in 2020 and Jacobs earned the same honor two years later with Las Vegas.
For Henry, this is a chance to show he still has plenty to offer after leading the NFL in carries in four of the past five seasons.
“I think it’s about taking care of my body, doing what I need to do year after year, week after week, day after day to prepare my body so that I can be in the best shape and perform at my best, and develop good habits of healthy eating,” Henry said during his Ravens press conference.
“When you get into the league, study more of the players who have been playing for a long time. Whether it’s the running back position or any other position, just absorb them and see what they’ve done and try to incorporate that into your life. That’s all I’m trying to do. It feels great.”
Henry, 30, is a throwback to an era when teams ran the ball more frequently and had one primary running back. He rushed for 2,030 touchdowns in eight seasons with Tennessee.
Most of today’s top ball carriers don’t stay with their original teams that long. For example, one of Henry’s replacements in Tennessee was Pollard, a 27-year-old with just 762 career carries who split time with Ezekiel Elliott for the majority of his time in Dallas.
Some of those running backs will benefit from new chapters, and McCoy specifically cited Jacobs and Barkley as players who could thrive in new situations because of the talent around them.
“All the pressure and the workload won’t be on Josh,” McCoy said. “Look at Saxon. He’s going to a team now that’s very productive, especially offensively. … In New York, he had to do everything to win, but they don’t have to do everything to win.”
Jacobs, 26, believes coming to Green Bay will allow him to bounce back from a disappointing season in 2023. After rushing for an NFL-leading 1,653 yards and 4.9 yards per carry in 2022, Jacobs only ran for 805 yards and gained 3.5 yards per attempt last season.
“There was just a lot of uncertainty,” Jacobs said of his time in Las Vegas. “We had a lot of coaching changes, a lot of stuff going on as a team, it just felt like a roller coaster of emotions. So just being somewhere that’s stable and where you feel like you’re needed, I think that’s huge. It definitely brings that joy back to the game.”
Other running backs who have moved teams are hoping to find that joy, and McCoy has some advice for them based on his own experience.
“Don’t let the past hurt your future,” McCoy said. “The new team they’re on is the team that got you in a trade. They signed you. Don’t hang on to all the strings attached from your old team. You can be mad that you didn’t sign, you can be mad that you’re in a new place, you can be mad that you had to move your family, you can be mad about all that stuff, but don’t let it hurt what you have now.”
“When a player goes to a new team, that new team wants him and will do anything to make him feel comfortable. So I would say to all the players, when you go there, be happy because they want you.”
