Power ranking Saquon Barkley's best runs from the historic 2024 season

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to the Super Bowl and that means there’s only one football game left this season. That means we only get to watch Saquon Barkley for 60 more minutes of football until next fall.

It’s just one more game of him making professional athletes look like newborn giraffes learning to walk. One more game of him showing the Giants’ John Mara and Joe Shoen that they made the worst decision of their lives. One more game of him doing back-to-back-to-back wrestling matches with defensive backs at 15 miles per hour. 

But don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. We’re going to look at 10 of Saquon’s runs this season and power rank them purely because he’s awesome.

Sifting through Saquon’s highlight reel to rank his best runs

What makes a run a great run? Is it the yardage? Is it top speed? Is it the number of tackles that get broken? Is it the game situation? Is it the game itself? Yep. It sure is … all of that. 

Obviously, the backward hurdle is in a league of its own. Eat your heart out, Odell Beckham Jr.; there’s a new coolest play in NFL history. If anyone ever tries to argue against that, the only response is, ‘Yeah, well Saquon purposefully jumped over a guy backward.’

They’ll say, ‘But what about the Immaculate Reception?’ You’ll answer, ‘Backward jump.’ They’ll say, ‘Beastquake?’ You’ll respond, ‘You know about hurdles? That, but backward.’

It can’t be topped, so it’s not going to be on this list. Of the other 410 runs, these are the best ones after that.

10: 25-yards against the Ravens in Week 13

This season's edition of, ‘The Eagles Run the Ball with Vicious Efficiency Against the NFL’s Best Run Defense’ came in Week 13. Going into that game, the talk was all about how the Eagles hadn’t played a good run defense and the Ravens were going to be their first test.

Well, Saquon only ran for 107 yards, so… good for Baltimore?

Their defense had five pro bowlers, three of which were All-Pro players. Now, not all of them were in a spot to make a play on Saquon, but he did run right by linebacker Roquan Smith. The best part of the entire thing was when he got to the 10-yard line, he ran directly into cornerback Tre'Davious White for what looked like no real reason. 

Saquon just saw White getting blocked, threw a shoulder into his chest, and carried along his merry way. Very funny.

9: 19-yards against the Jaguars in Week 9

A 19-yard run for Saquon against the Jaguars seems like child’s play, and to be fair, it kind of is. This gets put in the top ten because of the significance this has clearly played in the offense’s identity. This was a run play on third-and-17 with 28 seconds left before halftime. 

Common sense would have you believe that this was originally called to be some kind of surrender play for Jake Elliott to make an easy field goal as the clock winds down. Saquon took that personally and hit a whopping 21.72 miles per hour on his way to the endzone. 

Nick Sirianni says that his offense will run the ball on long third downs because they can get explosives on those plays. That sounds like coach speak and it’s easy to forget runs like these, but he’s got a point. Not every Coward’s Draw is actually a Coward’s Draw.

8: 41-yards against the Giants in Week 7

This wasn’t Saquon’s longest run against his former team, but it was the strongest one. The line of scrimmage was the eight-yard line, the first contact was at the 35-yard line, and then he finally went down after four people tackled him at the 50-yard line. It was disgusting, mean, and beautiful.

This was also Saquon’s mercy killing. After this run, he went out of the game and had his “I’d rather see the young guys eat” thing with Nick Sirianni on the sideline. 

Plain and simple: this was Saquon playing physical football and slaughtering the team that wouldn’t pay him. Swift justice.

7: 59-yards against the Buccaneers in Week 3

There’s not a whole lot to remember, or even think about, from the Eagles Week 3 loss to the Buccaneers. It was hot. Everyone was miserable. The defense played like garbage. We had to listen to Tom Brady call the game for the first time. Everything was terrible… but (this will sound lame) Saquon had one of his more inspiring runs in that game. 

Coming out of halftime, the Eagles were down 24-7. On the first play from scrimmage, Saquon had a beautiful 59-yard run that brought the offense to the Buccaneers’ 11-yard line. He came out of the game after that play and let Kenny Gainwell finish the drive.

At that moment, the thought was, ‘Okay, so this is what he can do in 90-degree heat, what can he do when it’s 30 degrees? He won’t have that same level of tiredness. He’ll be able to stay in the game and break people.’

That’s exactly what’s happened. Saquon hasn’t been getting caught by deep safeties. He’s been staying in the game after big plays and continuing to smash guys into little pieces. 

This run was not only mondo-sized, but because he didn’t score, you could see exactly how he would score later in the season. Jordan Whitehead made a prophetic tackle on that play.

6: 70-yards against the Rams in Week 12

There’s nothing like a one-play drive. They’re game-changing and game-wrecking. Punt and kick returns for touchdowns are sick, but when the offense gets the job done in one shot it hits different… and that’s especially true when it gets done on the ground.

Saquon has hammered home a one-and-done three times this season. His first one was in the first play coming out of halftime in the Week 12 Rams game.

At this point, the Eagles were only up 13-7, but it felt like the offense was on the verge of making this game get out of hand. The Rams defense desperately needed a stop.

They did not get a stop. 

Instead, Saquon ripped a cool 70-yarder, which was his longest run since his rookie season in 2018.

Not all of his huge runs are plays where he beats all 11 defenders, but this one was. He definitely ran by seven guys, but the other four were arguably in a position to at least try to make a play. Next Gen Stats (NGS) says he was only expected to get four yards, but Saquon hit the NOS and ran 21.38 miles per hour to kickstart the offense.

5: 65-yards against the Saints in Week 3

This one gets so highly ranked because this was the first time Saquon blew the roof off a defense. We knew he would be awesome—hell, we saw him be awesome for two weeks… but this was different. 

Per NGS, he was only expected to get three yards on that play. Sure, it’s numbers, tracking data, and smart people stuff that come up with that number… but get out of here with that. 

There are so many times that we’ve seen this Eagles offensive line open up monster holes and then running backs don’t take full advantage of them. Saquon has been milking those holes for every drop. Looking back on it, this run feels like the one that showed exactly what Saquon could be.

On top of that, this was an ugly, ugly game. These were the first points that the Eagles put on the board against a Saints team that was incredibly dominant at that point. 

4: 72-yards against the Rams in Week 12

Yeah, the yardage was huge with this one, but it was easily Saquon’s most pure run of the season. He never breaks stride the entire time and the closest a defender comes to him is when he’s five yards past the line of scrimmage. 

On top of that, this was the run that broke (read: shattered) both his and the Eagles’ single-game rushing record. NGS says he was only expected to get two yards on this run, but instead, he hit 21.91 mph and annihilated that number.

3: 23-yards against the Cowboys in Week 17

The Eagles were up 34-7. Tanner McKee was the quarterback. The Eagles were locked in as the second seed in the NFC. Nothing about this situation should’ve been spectacular… except that Saquon became the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. 

Then he was getting a standing ovation so Nick Sirianni took a time out to let him bask in it. The ‘MVP’ chants, the Kelly Green jerseys, and it was against the Cowboys? Buddy, you can’t ask for anything better than that. 

2: 60-yards against the Commanders in the NFC Championship game

The start of the NFC Championship was weird. The Commanders started with the ball and 18 plays, seven minutes, three third down and two fourth down conversions later, they kicked a field goal. It kind of felt like it might be one of those games where each team might only get six or seven possessions.

Then the Eagles get the ball, and on their first play, Saquon houses a 60-yarder at 19.55 mph. After that, it was more of a, ‘Oh, this Commanders’ defense doesn’t deserve to be on the field with this offense.’

NGS says Saquon was only expected to get four yards on that play… and once again Saquon broke their model.

This was his biggest run in the biggest game of his entire career and it set the tone for the rest of the game. There’s only one run that can be ranked higher than this. 

1: 78-yards against the Rams in the divisional round

If Saquon says that it’s his favorite touchdown that he’s ever had, then it’s the best one. You can’t argue with the man. 

The Eagles had a seven-point lead with 4:36 left in the game. They could either knock some time off the clock or get points and make it a two-score game that would (theoretically) be too much for the Rams to overcome. 

Saquon chose the latter. On yet another one-play drive, he hit 20.78 mph (which was faster than his NFCCG touchdown) in the snow, slapped his helmet a couple of times, and the rest is history.