Saquon Barkley Delivers Optimism Before Injury

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Even if you took away the 65-yard scoring scamper, Barkley still would have averaged a season-best 6.5 yards per rush on his remaining 13 attempts. The injury came on his second-longest gain of the day, a 28-yard run around to right side to close out the third quarter.

Barkley could be seen standing on the sideline -- still in uniform -- near Jalen Hurts and HC Nick Sirianni as Philly kneeled to seal the victory. That seemed to indicate the groin issue isn't too serious.

The Eagles led 24-13 when Barkley went down, so they had little reason to push him. And they get a Week 9 bye for him to rest it.

Barkley's five targets ranked second on the team, with WR A.J. Brown out, trailing only DeVonta Smith's nine.

The matchup undoubtedly helped the rushing production. Barkley's 4.8 yards per rush in the first meeting with the Giants marked his second-best rate of the season before Sunday, topped only by a 6-30 rushing line against Denver.

Tank Bigsby took his nine carries for 104 yards as Philly's No. 2 RB against the Giants in Week 8.

We'll see about Barkley's status coming out of the Week 9 bye. And then we'll see if the Philly run game can keep building on Sunday's success. Getting C Cam Jurgens back from injury (he missed Week 8) can only help. And G Landon Dickerson and T Lane Johnson have dealt with injuries as well.

The rest should help all of them.

Philadelphia gets a much tougher rushing matchup with Green Bay in Week 10. But a classic Barkley game (finally) should make it easier to keep tossing him into our lineups.

After the Packers in Week 10 and Lions in Week 11, the Eagles get the third-friendliest schedule for RB scoring the rest of the way, according to our adjusted fantasy points allowed.