Saquon Barkley Crowned King: NFL Top 100 Players List Puts Eagles RB In Top Spot
Well, well, well. Look who’s laughing now, Giants fans. Your former franchise cornerstone, the guy you let walk across the hallway to your biggest division rival, just got voted the best player in the entire NFL by his peers. Yeah, that stings worse than stepping on a LEGO barefoot at 3 a.m.
Saquon Barkley landed the top spot on the NFL Top 100 Players list for 2025, and honestly, after the season he just had, anyone arguing against it probably still thinks the Earth is flat. The Philadelphia Eagles running back didn’t just have a good year – he had the kind of season that makes you question everything you thought you knew about football. What will he have in store for an encore?
The Numbers Don’t Lie (Unlike Your Fantasy Football Projections)
Let’s talk brass tacks here. Barkley joined the exclusive 2,000-yard rushing club in 2024, becoming just the ninth player in NFL history to cross that threshold. But that’s not even the best part – when you factor in the playoffs, this man ran for 2,504 yards total. That’s not a typo, folks.
The 28-year-old phenom carried the ball 345 times during the regular season for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns. Add in his receiving numbers, and you’re looking at 378 total touches for 2,283 yards from scrimmage. Those aren’t just Eagles franchise records – they’re the kind of numbers that make coaches wake up in cold sweats, wondering how to stop this guy.
How the Giants Fumbled the Bag (And Their Future)
Remember when Giants GM Joe Schoen thought Barkley was “on the downside of his career”? The Giants brass, led by Schoen’s galaxy-brain thinking, decided they could spend their resources elsewhere rather than pay Barkley the three-year, $37.75 million deal the Eagles gladly handed over.
Co-owner John Mara even said he’d “lose sleep” if Barkley signed with the Eagles. Well, Johnny, I hope you invested in some good sleeping pills because your nightmares became reality. The whole debacle played out on “HBO’s Hard Knocks,” giving us all a front-row seat to one of the most catastrophic front office decisions in recent memory.
The NFL Top 100 Recognition Speaks Volumes
When your peers vote you as the best player in the league, that’s not just a pat on the back – that’s validation from the guys who line up across from you every Sunday. The NFL Top 100 Players list might not be the most scientific ranking system, but it’s revealing in ways that traditional analytics can’t capture. These are the players who know exactly how difficult it is to do what Barkley did last season.
The Eagles placed an impressive 10 players on this year’s list, with only Josh Sweat (ranked 95th) no longer with the team. That is a testament to the culture Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman have built in Philadelphia. When you’ve got Cooper DeJean at 60, Quinyon Mitchell at 49, and Jalen Carter at 43, you know you’ve got something special brewing.
Beyond the Regular Season Magic
Barkley’s regular season was historic, but his playoff performance? That was the stuff of legends. He set Eagles records with 255 rushing yards and 302 scrimmage yards in a win over the Rams during the regular season. Then, in the divisional round playoff rematch against Los Angeles, he torched them again for 205 rushing yards in the snow.
And who could forget that backwards hurdle over a Jacksonville defender? That wasn’t just a highlight – that was Barkley announcing to the world that he was having fun again, playing loose and free after years of mediocrity in New York.
The Awards Keep Piling Up
Being named number one on the NFL Top 100 is just the latest accolade in Barkley’s incredible 2024 campaign. He was voted AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, finished third in MVP voting, made his third Pro Bowl, and earned first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his career. EA Sports even put him on the cover of Madden 26, complete with that signature backwards hurdle.
But the crown jewel? That Super Bowl LIX championship ring after the Eagles crushed the Chiefs 40-22 in New Orleans. All those individual awards are nice, but championship hardware hits different.
What This Means Moving Forward
The Eagles rewarded Barkley’s phenomenal season with a contract extension in March that made him the highest-paid running back in NFL history. At 28, he’s entering his eighth NFL season with fresh legs and a chip on his shoulder the size of the Liberty Bell.
Thursday night’s season opener against the Cowboys will be appointment television, not just because it’s a division rivalry, but because everyone wants to see if Barkley can somehow top what he accomplished last year. Spoiler alert: he probably can’t match those numbers, but if anyone’s crazy enough to try, it’s the guy who just got voted the best player in football.
So here we are, Giants fans, watching your former franchise player get recognized as the best in the business while you’re stuck with… checks notes… Tyrone Tracy Jr., Devein Singletary, and rookie Cam Skattebo. Sometimes the best revenge is living well. In Barkley’s case, it’s living well while making your former team look like they outsmarted themselves right into irrelevance.
