Why Eagles’ Saquon Barkley should be leading candidate for MVP with six games remaining

Dig too deep into how the voting for the Associated Press’ NFL awards has fallen in the 21st century and you’re bound to have some questions.
Here, for instance, is one of them: How was Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson the unanimous winner of the 2019 MVP award, but not the winner of the league’s Offensive Player of the Year award? The latter award went to New Orleans wide receiver Michael Thomas, who had a fine year but did not come close to matching what Jackson did for the Ravens’ offense.
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Here’s another: Why has the MVP award become a quarterbacks only club? It could easily be argued that Christian McCaffrey was more valuable to the 49ers last season than Jackson was to the Ravens, but the award went to the quarterback. McCaffrey finished an inexplicable third in the voting. He did win the Offensive Player of the Year award, which apparently has become the landing zone for non-quarterbacks to receive their accolades.
Finally, we have this Eagles-related question: What would Saquon Barkley have to do to win the MVP award?
The answer to that one should be easy: Just keep doing what he’s been doing.
Through 11 games, Barkley leads the NFL in rushing and yards from scrimmage, the two most important statistics for a running back. He’s averaging a staggering 6.2 yards per carry and 126.5 yards rushing per game. He’s also averaging 149.9 yards from scrimmage, which is 24 yards more per game than McCaffrey averaged last season when he was clearly the MVP of a 49ers’ team that came so close to winning the Super Bowl.
Before we continue, let’s recognize that the ‘V’ in MVP stands for value and that should always be considered by those who vote for the award.
At the moment, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen is the betting favorite to win the MVP award, according to vegasinsider.com. Jackson is second on the list. The good news for Barkley and the Eagles is that his candidacy picked up a lot of steam after what he did against the Rams Sunday night in front of a national television audience. The running back is now the third betting favorite.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is seventh on the list and Baltimore running back Derrick Henry is way-too-far down the list at tied for 11th with Washington rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. Henry, like Barkley, left a team he had been with his entire career (Tennessee) to become a game-changing presence elsewhere.
The two star running backs will meet Sunday when the Eagles and Ravens play in another nationally televised game in Baltimore. It will also give Hurts the opportunity to show how he measures up against Jackson, a two-time MVP winner.
We’ve mentioned a lot of terrific players in those last few paragraphs, but none has been more “valuable” to their team than Barkley while also posting the best possible offensive numbers at his position.
Sure the Bills wouldn’t be 9-2 and in the hunt for the top seed in the AFC without Allen, but statistically Jackson is having a better season than him. And, sure, Jackson is arguably the best dual-threat quarterback in league history, but Henry’s presence has allowed him to become a better passer.
Barkley, meanwhile, has become the focal point of the Eagles’ offense in his first season. The Eagles are first in the league in rushing attempts and last in the league in passing attempts. They lead the league in rushing and are third in the league in total yards despite passing the ball less than any other team in the NFL.
That’s almost impossible to do in today’s NFL.
But because of Barkley the Eagles are doing it.
It has been a dozen years since a non-quarterback has won the league MVP award and it has only happened four times in the 21st century. The last to do it was Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson in 2012. He rushed for 2,097 yards that season, the second highest total in league history, and he also led the league with 2,314 yards from scrimmage while accounting for 28 touchdowns.
Except for the touchdowns part, which can be blamed mostly on the success of the Eagles’ quarterback sneaks near the goal line, Barkley is having a better season than Peterson had that year. He’s on pace to finish with 2,151 rushing yards, which would break Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old record of 2,105 yards.
He’s also on pace for 2,548 yards from scrimmage, which would surpass the record of 2,509 yards that Chris Johnson put up with the Tennessee Titans in 2009.
Yes, the NFL plays one more game now than it did then, but that doesn’t change the fact that what Barkley is doing this season is deserving of the MVP award.
The other running backs to win the MVP in this century are LaDainian Tomlinson with the Chargers in 2006, Shaun Alexander with the Seahawks in 2005 and Marshall Faulk with the Rams in 2000.
Among that trio, Barkley’s presence with the Eagles is most reminiscent of what Faulk brought to the Rams after being traded from the Colts in 1999. He was the player that truly made the Rams the “Greatest Show on Turf” work because he always had to be accounted for, freeing up quarterback Kurt Warner to find receivers Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce.
Faulk, Warner, Holt and Bruce were in attendance Sunday night to witness the greatness of Saquon Barkley and current Rams coach Sean McVay properly recognized what the star running back did to his team during the Eagles’ 37-20 win at SoFi Stadium.
“He’s as good as there is as a slash runner to be able to work edges and then be able to erase angles and be able to finish,” McVay said. “That’s why he had the production that he had and that’s why he’s had arguably an MVP type of season so far.”
Consider the argument made. Barkley, as of this moment, is the MVP of the NFL.
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Bob Brookover can be reached at [email protected]