Fantasy Football Profile: Saquon Barkley 2025 Outlook

By Kevin Hanson (@EDSFootball)
Updated: Saturday, March 15, 2025

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley made history in 2024 — both in terms of production and workload.

Barkley became only the ninth running back in league history to eclipse the 2,000-yard rushing milestone. While Barkley sat out Week 18 instead of chasing Eric Dickerson's single-season record set in 1984, he was only 100 yards shy of tying the record (2,105).

The Eagles rested many of their starters including Barkley in Week 18, but he led the NFL in rushing yards (2,005) and yards from scrimmage (2,283) last season. He also tied a previous career high (set in his rookie campaign) of 15 combined touchdowns.

Detroit's Jahmyr Gibbs had a monster Week 18 performance (43.5 fantasy points), but no running back scored more fantasy points in 2024 than Barkley, who averaged more fantasy points per game (21.2) than in any of his previous seasons except for his rookie campaign (21.3).

Barkley played only two games in 2020, but he averaged anywhere in between 9.2 (2021) and 16.8 (2019) fantasy points per game in his non-rookie seasons with the New York Giants.

Impacts of playing with a dual-threat quarterback

A major difference between Barkley's statistical output as a rookie versus last year was the reduction of his receiving role.

Barkley set per-game career lows in receptions (2.1), targets (2.7), and receiving yards (17.4) in 2024. Playing with Jalen Hurts, an elite dual-threat quarterback who led all quarterbacks in rush attempts (150) in 2024, that was a concern heading into his first season as an Eagle. Of course, his elite rushing production more than compensated for the career lows as a receiver.

Not only does Barkley benefit from running behind an elite offensive line and being flanked by talented wideouts — A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith — to keep opposing defenses honest, the threat of Hurts running also helps Barkley's efficiency. He set a career high in yards per carry (5.8), which is more than a yard better than his career average (4.7).

The other negative impact of Hurts on Barkley is the potential to vulture short-yardage touchdowns. While Barkley set a career high with 13 rushing scores, he finished second on the team behind Hurts (14).

As noted in our Jalen Hurts fantasy football profile, no player has rushed for more touchdowns since 2021 than Hurts (52). An interesting wrinkle to this is the competition committee discussing a potential ban on the Tush Push. Depending on the outcome, that could potentially boost Barkley's rushing touchdown upside.

Barkley's 2024 workload was a decade high

Yes, he led the NFL in carries and touches, as noted above, but Barkley and Eagles played another four games en route to their Super Bowl LIX victory. In the postseason, Barkley racked up an additional 91 rush attempts and 13 receptions through four playoff games.

Adding in his 104 playoff touches, Barkley had nearly 100 more than the next closest back (Kyren Williams). In fact, he had 150-plus more than all but four other backs — Williams (389), Derrick Henry (386), Bijan Robinson (365), and Josh Jacobs (358).

In addition, Barkley's 2024 workload was the most in a decade and the third most since 2000.

Barkley played a full season other than a rest week in the regular-season finale. Before that, however, he missed at least three games in four of the previous five seasons. He's built to handle heavy workloads, and although he seems superhuman at times (see reverse leapfrog below), the 2024 outlier workload adds to the potential of injury risk in his upcoming age-29 season.

Saquon Barkley Full-Season Projections

Here are our full-season projections for Barkley:

More projections:

• Philadelphia Eagles Fantasy Football Projections
• Fantasy Football Projections

Bottom Line

Outside of auction-league formats, only fantasy managers picking atop the draft order will get the potential to consider Barkley. In many leagues, Barkley will slot as 1.01 in drafts. One could argue that a younger back with less cumulative wear and tear, such as Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs, should go ahead of Barkley, as both should also outproduce him as a receiver. Or that Ja'Marr Chase (or even other wide receivers) should go before Barkley. Chase is coming off the receiving triple crown in his age-24 season and is just entering his prime.

An uber-talented running back class is about to enter the league, and it will be interesting to see how their draft landing spots alter the landscape and outlook in 2025.

That said, Barkley enters 2025 as my top-ranked running back and second-ranked player (behind Chase), but he's clearly worth selecting as the 1.01. He is an elite talent who dominated touches — 79.86% of RB carries and 70.49% of RB targets through Week 17. Even though volume in the passing game will remain low, Hurts will vulture touchdowns, and the cumulative workload has been high, the Super Bowl champs have the league's most talented roster and positive game scripts should lead him to elite production week in and week out.