The NFL’s former MVPs don’t have a “Heisman House.” They don’t have reunions. They don’t even have a group chat — so far as Matt Ryan knows.
They also don’t have a say in the annual process. Votes belong to 50 media members who cast their selections in a ranked system under the banner of the Associated Press. But if Matt Ryan did get to vote, the 2016 league MVP said he’d (for now) pick between four players: Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jared Goff and his personal front-runner… Saquon Barkley.
“There’s still a lot of football to be played,” Ryan told The Athletic. “You never know what can happen, especially as we come down the stretch. It’s going to be whoever explodes in the month of December as we make this push.”
Of course, Ryan had to tack on a conservative caveat. He’s an analyst now for CBS Sports. He’s on The NFL Today crew with Bill Cowher, J.J. Watt and Nate Burleson. He can’t be caught out here throwing around definitives. Nor would he anyway. Ryan’s careful precision steadied the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback through his greatest season, with a Super Bowl appearance, that seems so similar to what Barkley is experiencing now in Philadelphia.
Ryan remembers the “M-V-P” chants in the Georgia Dome. He remembers how Mohamed Sanu, their “big hype guy,” would yell at him after almost every completion. That’s right! That’s right! Some of Sanu’s stuff, Ryan can’t repeat. But it still makes him glow. There are still tendrils curling from that aging and intoxicating ether, that expectation to be invincible and nearly always delivering.
“There’s this level of confidence that’s already there,” said Ryan, who threw for a career-best 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 2016. “But, like, I do think you feed off of that energy, you know, and it’s amazing the self-belief that you have during times like that.”
Ryan sees that self-belief in Barkley. How could you not? What else could convince someone of sound mind and judgment to even attempt jumping over a defender backward? Who wouldn’t draw inspiration from the M-V-P chants of a traveling fan base who filled the majority of SoFi Stadium on Sunday, when the Philadelphia Eagles stomped the Los Angeles Rams 37-20 beneath the boots of Barkley and his record-setting runs?
Belief begets belief in a bond between teammates. Blocks become breakaways. C.J. Uzomah, the third tight end in Sunday’s 13 personnel packages, set the backside block on Barkley’s 72-yard score. Uzomah turned just in time to see fellow tight end Grant Calcaterra widen the hole on the other side.
“I’m like, ‘Damn,’” Uzomah said in the locker room afterward. “And then (Barkley’s) gone. I’m literally watching him and A.J. (Brown) run down the field together. And I see Grant out of my peripheral booking it.”
“So stoked,” added Calcaterra, changing at his locker next to Uzomah.
In the replay, Calcaterra can be seen charging down the field, one arm outstretched, pointing at Barkley, all the while staring at Philadelphia’s sideline.
“Biggest smile on his face,” Uzomah said.
There’s a shared joy when stellar play charts a clear destination, Ryan knows. The MVP conversation cannot begin without hanging it on something tangible, he says, like a palpable sense that the protagonist and his pals are bound for a deep playoff run. It’s an accessory to the ultimate goal, which is why Ryan also identifies with Barkley’s reluctance to acknowledge his undeniable spotlight.
“I love being in that (MVP) conversation,” Barkley admitted Sunday. “It’s cool and all. But, like I said, it’s a team sport. If you tell me that I can have the year I’m having and win MVP but not win a Super Bowl, or I can have the year I’m having and not win MVP and win a Super Bowl, I’m going to take the other one.”
Only Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has simultaneously won MVP and a Super Bowl in this century. That’s partly because votes are cast just before the playoffs begin (and are announced a day before the big game). Since the 2000 season, nine MVPs subsequently lost in the Super Bowl. Ryan’s Falcons infamously lost Super Bowl LI. Five-time winner Peyton Manning and three-time winner Tom Brady lost in both of their two Super Bowl appearances as the league’s MVP. Aaron Rodgers, a four-time MVP with the Green Bay Packers, never got past the NFC title game.
The disparity reinforces what those MVPs inherently know: football, of course, is a team game. The award is intrinsically connected to a successful team. They both must be in stride. Take a player like Joe Burrow, who’s thrown for 3,028 yards, a league-leading 27 touchdowns and only four interceptions through 11 games. But the Cincinnati Bengals are 4-7. Burrow won’t be in any MVP talk. Deeply competitive players foremost desire to win. Eagles linebacker Oren Burks, who played with Rodgers during his back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021, remembers how the quarterback made sure “the team success comes first.”
“Like that was one thing with Aaron,” Burks said. “He was always making sure (we were) holding each other accountable in terms of what they expect. And Saquon is the same way. He holds his offensive line to a certain standard. He holds Jalen (Hurts) to a certain standard. That comes from just the team atmosphere and the culture that we have here. So, I feel like it’s just bouncing off each other’s success. The more he shines, the more Jalen is going to have better opportunities. Everybody is just trying to do their part and just pull their weight. As the team rises, everybody else rises as well.”
Barkley’s production and influence strongly suggest he can stop the 12-year streak of quarterbacks winning the NFL’s MVP award. His league-leading 1,392 rushing yards through 11 games already surpassed his previous career-high with the New York Giants. He’s on pace to break the NFL’s single-season record set by Eric Dickerson (2,105 yards) with the Los Angeles Rams in 1984. Adrian Peterson, the last non-quarterback to win MVP, rushed for 2,097 yards and 12 touchdowns for a 2012 Minnesota Vikings team that lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Ryan had the second-best numbers of his career that same season (4,719 yards, 32 touchdowns). The Falcons went 13-3, securing the top seed in the NFC. But Ryan affirmed “Adrian Peterson was unbelievable during that time frame.”
“I think if you’re gonna win it from a position other than quarterback, it has to be kind of that 2,000-yard type season, right?” Ryan said. “I really think Saquon’s got a great chance. What’s he need? Just a little over 600 yards? At the rate he’s going, man, that’s happening. So I do think from a position outside of quarterback, it takes kind of a year that is an outlier, that’s historical, and I think we’re witnessing that right now.”
Barkley is the posterizer of a league-wide trend. The NFL’s teams are collectively running the ball at the highest rate (43.7 percent of plays) since 2008 (44.2 percent), according to TruMedia. That’s up more than a full percentage point from 2023 (42.1). It’s a significant development considering the league’s top running backs held a Zoom call in July 2023 to discuss how to combat the devaluation of their position. No position group had lost out on more money in the previous decade than running back. The salary cap had increased by 82.8 percent since 2013. But the average of the top-five salaries for running backs had only increased by 22.8 percent in that span, according to Spotrac.
Since then, the NFL’s five highest-paid running backs — Christian McCaffrey ($19 million per year), Jonathan Taylor ($14 million), Barkley ($12.58 million), Alvin Kamara ($12.25 million), Josh Jacobs ($12 million) — have signed contract extensions that bumped the position group’s top-five average up from $12.56 million in 2023 to $13.96 million in 2024. The Eagles, who’d ranked in the bottom 10 in running back spending in each of the previous four seasons, splurged on Barkley due to his caliber and his expected impact on an offensive system that already featured the dual-threat Hurts.
Much of Barkley’s influence has already played out in a rejuvenated rushing attack that’s opened up one-on-one matchups in the passing game for Brown and DeVonta Smith. But recently, even when the passing game is lacking, the Eagles have dominated their opponents with their commitment to Barkley. His rush attempts in the first halves (107) and second halves (116) of games are nearly equal, but his yardage in second halves (920 yards) is more than double than his production in first halves (472). Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said the Eagles pride themselves on having a “really physical run game,” and “those things wear on you as the game goes on.”
“The way the games have played out, you can keep grinding it out as the second half progresses, and those big plays eventually pop,” Moore said.
No running back has more runs of 30-plus yards in 2024 than Barkley (9). The mechanics of an explosive run are significantly more volatile than explosive passes. For starters, running backs can’t simply toss themselves 30 yards downfield. As for the play designs themselves, Moore said there are some “dirty runs” the Eagles “anticipate being grinded-out runs” — often in short-yardage situations — and there are others in which there, “are a little bit more of the explosive opportunities.”
Take Barkley’s 72-yard touchdown run against the Rams. On third-and-6, the Eagles fielded a 13 personnel package that drew nine defenders within range of the line of scrimmage. By pulling Calcaterra and right guard Mekhi Becton to the weak side of the defense, the Eagles gave themselves a numbers advantage and a favorable shot at gaining significant yardage. By handing the ball off to Barkley, they entrusted a longer third-down situation to a running back they knew considerably reduced the play’s margin of error.
Ryan likens Barkley’s explosive runs to “Heisman” moments. Every NFL MVP needs “one or two of those signature plays that jump out at you.” Barkley’s hurdled a defender backward. He gashed the New Orleans Saints for a 65-yard touchdown run, then later provided the go-ahead score. His 70- and 72-yard touchdowns against the Rams helped break the franchise record for single-game rushing yards (255) and scrimmage yards (302). He’ll duel the AFC’s leading rusher, Derrick Henry, in an Eagles-Ravens billing in Baltimore on Sunday that’s straight out of the 2000s.
Barkley so far embodies the individual award that’s never been awarded to any Eagles player in the team’s 92-year history: MVP.
“You’re holding your breath every time he touches the ball,” Ryan said. “Because there’s the ability to take it to the house at any minute.”
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
