There have only been a handful of times that the Eagles have gone out and aggressively pursued top running back talent in the free agent pool, and much to the delight of many Eagles fans, this is one of those occasions. On Monday, during the NFL’s “tampering period” the Eagles reportedly landed former New York Giants star running and Penn State alum, Saquon Barkley on a three-year deal.  No longer will he be a concern for the defense of Philadelphia, but will hopefully cause issues for everyone else in the NFL now that he’s teamed up with Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, and others that was already a very good offensive team. So why, with so many other needs on the defensive side of the ball did they go after Barkley as hard as they did?

The Eagles could have easily kept De’Andre Swift for less money and focused on spending their cap money on other positions, but instead they let Swift go to Chicago before turning their attention to Barkley. However, based on the grumblings and rumors that have surrounded the team for a few weeks, this may have been a calculated plan all along. And I think the biggest reason for it is simple. Kellen Moore.

Moore was brought in as the team’s new offensive coordinator this winter, and it seems as though he and the team looked at Barkley’s skill set to be a better fit for the system that Moore likes to run. Moore likes to go with an outside zone, and many times from under the center. Sure, Swift could possibly have done that well too, but another big part of Moore’s system is play action plays.

Saquon Barkley’s receiving ability out of the backfield is tremendous. Although he has never matched the 121 targets as he did during his rookie season in 2018, he has still had over 41 receptions in each season besides the 2020 campaign where he missed most of the season due to injury.

De’Andre Swift has also had nice numbers catching the ball as well so far in his career, but Barkley has been very good at picking up blitzes, something Swift wasn’t that good at. This of course is important in the play action game. Also,  Barkley is considered to be more explosive with the ball in his hands, and is one of the NFL’s best in that regard. He gets a chance to play for a team that has had success in winning games which is something that the Giants have struggled with in recent seasons. He finally gets a chance to shine behind a better offensive line than what he has previously. Hopefully that’s enough to get Barkley back on the track he was on earlier in his career.

That’s where the concern comes in. There is an injury history with Barkley. He has missed games , in fact 21 from 2019 to 2022. Eagles GM Howie Roseman may be banking on the injury bug being a thing of the past, but it will leave Eagles fans holding their breath whenever Barkley is slow to get up off the turf.

For some reason last year the Eagles got away from the run for chunks of the season. Whether it was the play calling of former OC Brian Johnson, Jalen Hurts audibling out of the play, or something else, it was very frustrating to watch. One can only hope that Kellan Moore’s philosophy will be a better fit for someone of Barkley’s skill set and they can use his speed and awareness to the maximum.

It is rare for the Eagles, especially Howie Roseman to put as much stock as he did into a running back, but there should be confidence that there was a significant reason to do so. We can probably count on one hand when the team made a big splash at the position (DeMarco Murray, Ricky Watters, Herschel Walker), but now that offense is set, there’s no more excuses on that side of the ball.

It’s going to be a long wait until September.