Much like Christian McCaffrey going from Carolina to San Francisco or Derrick Henry swapping Tennessee for Baltimore, the switch from the Giants to the Eagles made a huge difference in Barkley's output. He's always been a high-volume RB, but efficiency was an impossible task at times in New York while dealing with lousy blocking and poor QBs. It turns out Barkley is a lot harder to tackle when he has an elite offensive line and competent passing game giving the defense something additional to worry about. He improved from 3.9 YPC in his last year with the Giants to 5.8 in 2024, propelled by a sharp increase in big plays. Barkley's carries of 20-plus and 40-plus yards, respectively rose from seven and zero in 2023 to 17 and seven last year. It's likely not sustainable for Barkley to average a 40-plus carry every two or three weeks like he did in his first season with Philadelphia, but the conditions that made him so productive remain intact, as it will always be profoundly difficult for defenses to show a proper amount of respect to Barkley, QB Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia wide receivers at the same time.
