Adrian Peterson was the last running back to win the NFL MVP award back in 2012. Saquon Barkley of the Philadelphia Eagles is considered to be one of the three front-runners for the Most Valuable Player award, alongside Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Sunday brings an absolutely massive game, as Barkley and the league’s number one rushing offense visit Baltimore, who boast the NFL’s number two rushing attack. It’s also a matchup between the league’s top two individual rushers Barkley, and the Ravens’ Derrick Henry.
The stats do not lie—Barkley and the Eagles have been doing things at the running back position and in the running game since the 1940s. What makes these feats all the more impressive is that back then, most teams didn’t pass a whole lot, and most offensive production for every team came on the ground.
The Ravens, who could be without one of their top defensive players, Roquan Smith, on Sunday, will have to do their best to limit Barkley’s production.
Coming off a 255-yard rushing performance on Sunday Night Football, Barkley isn’t a player you can genuinely shut down or effectively contain. You have to try to limit the damage he can do.
The Eagles running back is having such an excellent season that he’s become a pop culture sensation. It’s not just NFL journalists or sports media personalities talking about Barkley.
Actor and Philadelphia native Michael Blackson, known for Next Friday and Meet the Blacks, is a huge Eagles fan. Blackson pointed out how Barkley has extra motivation this season, as he wants to prove the New York Giants wrong in not offering him the new contract he sought.
“Of course, I mean, they (Giants) didn’t give him the money that he wanted. So he will want to prove it and show them why they are going to miss him for the rest of the season,” Blackson said in an exclusive with RG. “That’s what you do against your old team. You go all out for your new team and show them why they should have kept him.”
Signing with a division rival and then lighting them up is the best way to prove your point to them. In addition to entertainment news, Barkley is now getting featured in finance news!
Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” and the world’s foremost finance bro, raves about Barkley regularly during appearances on the network’s stock market-related programming.
On Monday, Cramer claimed that Barkley could bench press 650 pounds.
Maybe the best ever to wear the uniform. Saquon Barkley
— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) November 25, 2024
Cramer has also been extolling Barkley’s virtues on social media all season long, and he declared the running back to be in the G.O.A.T. conversation on X/Twitter after Sunday night’s performance.
You know a NFL player is really very special when they’re talking about him on both Wall Street and in Hollywood. However, Zach Orr and the Ravens defense just need to do what they do, stick to the game plan, and not get awed by the hype surrounding the stellar Eagles running back.