NFL
Saquon Barkley’s staggering contract with the Eagles: Annual salary and years left in Philadelphia
The 27-year-old running back spent five years with the New York Giants before signing a bumper deal with the Eagles.
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has made a fast start to life with his new team. An offseason acquisition from the New York Giants, Barkley has quickly repaid the Eagles' faith with a number of stunning plays in recent weeks.
As a receiver he’s now racked up 497 yards across the past three weeks, making an incredible reverse-hurdle play in a recent win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“It was the best play I’ve ever seen,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “What I think is so cool, there’s going to be kids all over the country and all over Philadelphia trying to make that play.”
He has already repaid a large chunk of the bumper three-year deal signed earlier this year. Saquon Barkley’s Eagles contract is worth $37.75 million, with $26 million guaranteed.
“When I was able to find a new home and knew I was going there, I got the guaranteed money I wanted and the contract I wanted,” Barkley said of his move to Philadelphia. “The last three or four years I‘ve been on a one-year deal, so now I can go back to playing ball like, ’Yeah, I‘m jumping over people again, because I got money’. I have financial security, and I can play free.”
Why did Saquon Barkley leave the Giants?
Barkley was drafted by the New York Giants as the No. 2 overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. His first season in NY was a triumph, setting a number of team and NFL records as a rookie, going on to be named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
He suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear in 2020 that ended his season in Game 2. He returned to become a key player for the Giants once again, ranking 31st in the NBFL Top 100 Players of 2023.
However with his contract set to expire at the end of the 2023 season negotiations between Barkley and the Giants foundered. He has said that the Giants asked him to search for an offer at another team and they would try to match it, a suggestion that he later described as “disrespectful”.
“It was over after that phone call, in my opinion,” Barkley said of those salary negotiations in New York. “It was over after that because I never in my heart truly believed they were going to match it, or they only wanted me for a lower price.”
As it happened, the Eagles were willing to hand Barkley the second-highest guaranteed salary ($26 million) of any running-back in the league. Only Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts ($26.5 million) earns more. If Barkley can keep up his current form, it will look like a good deal all round.