The Good and Bad of Saquon Barkley's Week 5

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

Let's start with the positive: Barkley saved his fantasy line with a 47-yard TD catch early in the third quarter. That came on a deep throw and continued his increased receiving vs. last season.

Barkley has caught 3+ passes in four of the first five games. That already matches the games of 3+ receptions he generated across 16 regular-season contests last year.

The RB's up from 2.1 receptions per game in his first Eagles campaign to 3.4, and from 2.7 targets per game to 3.8.

That's a key reason he has maintained top-12 level scoring despite a relatively terrible rushing start to the year.

Run Game Continues to Suffer

Barkley's averaging just 53.4 rushing yards through five games. That's his lowest rate since 2021 and would be the second-lowest average of his career (outside of 2020, when a Week 2 ACL tear ended his season).

The blocking clearly hasn't been good enough. Barkley entered Sunday's game at a career-low 1.7 yards before contact per carry. That's less than half of last year's career-best 3.8.

If you're wondering why we're not seeing those explosive runs from 2024, that's likely the primary culprit.

Defenses are also keying on Barkley more.

According to Next Gen Stats, the Eagles RB saw 8+ defenders in the box on 20.6% of his runs in 2024, 22nd in the league. That's up to 30.1% this year, 11th-highest. And Barkley's down from 1.61 rush yards over expected per attempt last season to minus-0.36 in that category.

That sure looks like a confluence of the deteriorated blocking, increased defensive attention and a lagging pass offense failing to punish those defenses.

Eagles Prioritized Passing in Week 5

Philly's passing struggles have garnered more headlines than the rushing limitations, and Sunday's game pretty clearly showed us the Eagles trying to focusing on fixing that aspect.

Jalen Hurts dropped back on all three plays of the team's first possession and then seven of 11 plays on the second drive. By the end of the first half, Philly had dropped back 22 times vs. just nine rushes, in a game it led 10-3.

Worse for Barkley, AJ Dillon and Will Shipley each worked in for carries before the break. The starter rushed five times in the first half to Dillon's two and Shipley's one.

The second half included just two more Eagles rushes:

• one by Barkley for no gain
• and a 4-yard scramble by Hurts

Even after Barkley's TD catch staked Philly to a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter -- and Denver failed to score on its ensuing possession -- the Eagles dropped Hurts back on all five plays of their next drive.

Why Barkley Doesn't Look Like a Buy-Low

I can understand why you might view Barkley as a buy-low target right now. The rushing load had remained strong ahead of the Denver game (19.3 carries per outing), and the increased receiving usage amended the only negative in last year's profile.

But this offense ain't right.

An Eagles team leading by 14 points at home against Pat Surtain & Co. shouldn't still be dropping back every time, especially with Saquon Barkley in tow.

And on top of all that, Philly lost LG Landon Dickerson to a left ankle injury on Sunday. We'll see about his outlook, but the quick turnaround to a Thursday night visit to the Giants makes him a longshot to play.

RT Lane Johnson has also left two of five games early and remained on the Week 5 injury report with that shoulder issue (though he played every snap against the Broncos).

Keep Playing Barkley and Cross Your Fingers

I can't speak for the rest of the DS crew on how to treat Barkley. For all the aforementioned reasons, though, I'd be more inclined to consider selling opportunities on him rather than targeting the RB as a buy or just trust that everything's gonna rebound.

That said, I'd be careful not to undersell the stud RB.

Barkley still sits 12th among RBs in PPR points per game despite the offense starting about as poorly as it reasonably could have:

• 16th in scoring
• 21st in total yards
• 29th in yards per play

He's simply good enough and still central enough to Philly's offense to keep delivering you fine fantasy production even if all the issues continue.

But if someone's looking to buy Barkley at the early first-round price level you got him, at least consider the move.

Other Winners & Losers

No other Philadelphia RB is going to find fantasy relevance while Barkley's healthy, but it's worth noting that Dillon and Shipley remain the backups here.

I was extremely skeptical of the reports saying the Eagles traded fifth- and sixth-round picks just to use Tank Bigsby as a kick returner. But it appears that's exactly what they did.

Bigsby has yet to play an offensive snap in four games since the trade but has returned seven kicks at 21.4 yards a pop.

He's not worth clinging to in any redraft formats.

And I wouldn't recommend treating Dillon or Shipley as "the handcuff" to Barkley either. The way both are currently getting used points to a split backfield in the case of a Barkley injury -- with special teams maven Tank Bigsby perhaps also factoring into that scenario.