It’s good to be Saquon Barkley.
Three weeks after winning his first Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Eagles running back has signed a two-year, $42.1 million extension with the team, with $36 million in guaranteed money at signing.
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The Eagles rewarded Barkley by making him the NFL’s first running back to earn more than $20 million per year on average. It makes him the league’s highest paid running back, surpassing San Francisco running back Christian McCaffery. Barkley still has opportunity to gain $15 million in additional cash through incentives and escalators.
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The new contract signed within the same league year as his previous one – a rarity especially for running backs — also provides roster construction flexibility for the Eagles. Barkley was previously set for a $13.5 million cap hit in 2025, which has now been nearly cut in half to $6.8 million.
Barkley, one of the league’s most popular players, signed a unique contract with Philadelphia last offseason in which all incentive bonuses he picked up throughout the 2024 season were added to his 2025 base salary as an escalator.
The 28-year-old hit several marks in the 2024 season: $1 million for being an All-Pro first team selection, $500,000 for crossing the hallowed 2,000 rushing-yard benchmark, $250,000 for making the Pro Bowl, $250,000 for winning the NFC championship and another $250,000 for winning the Super Bowl.
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If he picked up each incentive of the original three-year deal, Barkley was set to earn upwards of $46 million.
The former Penn State star rusher had an historic first season with the Eagles, running for 2,504 yards, surpassing Terrell Davis for the single season rushing record (including the playoffs) of 2,476 yards in 1998. Barkley had a chance to break the total regular season record held by Eric Dickerson but sat out of the Eagles’ regular season finale.
Barkley came to the Eagles after spending his first six seasons with the rival New York Giants, who drafted him in 2018 and signed him to a four-year, $31.2 million rookie contract. In 2023, the Giants placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on him for a salary of $10.1 million, including a $2 million signing bonus.
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The lack of a long-term deal frustrated Barkley, leading him to depart New York in free agency, and creating some infamy for the Giants during the first – and thus far, only – season of HBO’s offseason series for the Hard Knocks franchise.
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