Eagles Were Right to Keep Barkley; the Real Fix Is Elsewhere

Is a 29-year-old running back the asset a 2-5 team should be cashing in? The easy answer says sell, because the season is sinking and running backs age badly. We think the easy answer is wrong, and that the Eagles' front office, for once, is reading the situation better than the people yelling at it.

What happened, in short

As TSN reports citing NFL Network, Saquon Barkley will not be traded before the Nov. 10 deadline. He has two years and just over $35 million left on his contract, and Philadelphia has told teams he isn't available. The Eagles are 2-5, Jalen Hurts is out, and Howie Roseman is reportedly exploring deals for other players to collect future draft picks.

Barkley's own season has been bumpy: a stinger, hamstring and back problems, just 10 snaps against Dallas, and 244 rushing yards through five games. Even so, he is averaging 5.7 yards per carry, according to Inside the Iggles.

Selling now means selling at the bottom

The trade-him case rests on a premise that doesn't hold up: that someone would pay real value. Barkley is hurt, he turns 30 in February, and his 2025 numbers dipped to 4.1 yards per carry from 5.8 in his 2,005-yard 2024. Any buyer would price all of that in. Even a critic at Bleeding Green Nation, who thinks the Eagles could regret this, concedes we don't know whether strong offers even exist while he's hampered.

Selling a banged-up veteran at his lowest market value, to chase a pick or two, is the kind of move that feels active and accomplishes little. Our view: you trade a back when the offers are overwhelming, not when the calendar and the standings make you nervous.

There's also the cultural argument. Barkley told reporters, "One day I'm not going to be playing football. Whenever that is, I don't want to look back and be like, 'I could've gave it a chance and I didn't.'" A franchise that wants to rebound in 2027 probably doesn't want to ship out the player who talks like that.

The running back isn't what's broken

Here's the part that matters more. Barkley's 2025 drop came, in the words of Inside the Iggles, "in a struggling offense," and this year's story includes "offensive line issues" and changes with the play-caller. Running backs don't create their own holes. When a runner's yards per carry falls by more than a yard and a half in a year, and then bounces back to 5.7 on a 2-5 team, we'd look at the people blocking before the person carrying.

A CBS Sports betting preview, for what it's worth, says the Eagles "have to believe in their defense and the run game," and that the defense "can win any game for them," although it's banged up. That's a hopeful description, and it suggests to us that the pieces to compete are not the main concern. In our opinion, the offense, and above all the line, is where Roseman's trade-deadline energy belongs.

Roseman has reportedly left the door open to acquiring a player if the price is right and he fits the long-term plan. We'd be more interested in an offensive lineman than in any quarterback stopgap, including the Gardner Minshew reunion that El-Balad says some are urging. With Hurts out for what may be the rest of the season, papering over 2026 at quarterback won't fix the structural issues.

Our verdict

Keep Barkley. Treat the deadline as an audit of the offensive line, not a referendum on a running back who is still productive when he's on the field. The one caveat: if the roster and coaching staff face the turnover some are predicting for 2027, the Eagles need to make sure they're building something worth the back's remaining years. Otherwise, keeping him only prolongs the problem.

Roseman's real test isn't what he refuses to sell. It's whether he fixes the line before the next season starts.