Eagles Make Saquon Barkley NFL’s Highest-Paid Running Back Ever

Saquon Barkley continues to make NFL history. 

After a 2,000-yard rushing season that ended with a Super Bowl title and Offensive Player of the Year honors, he and the Eagles reportedly agreed to a two-year, $41 million contract extension Tuesday that will make Barkley the first running back to earn $20 million per season. The news was first reported by ESPN’s Pat McAfee. 

The Eagles guaranteed $36 million of Barkley’s new extension and he can earn an additional $15 million in contract incentives from the original contract carried into the new one. The cash guarantee is the largest of its kind in a two- or three-year window in league history, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. 

Barkley previously signed a three-year contract in 2024 worth $37 million with $26 million guaranteed, and hit every contract incentive during the 2024 season, which included $250,000 each for being named first-team All-Pro, eclipsing 2,000 yards rushing and receiving, and for winning the Super Bowl and NFC championship. He also broke the record for most rushing yards in a season (including playoffs), which was previously held by Broncos running back Terrell Davis. 

As a result, Barkley more than doubled his 2025 base salary from $1.375 million to $2.875 million. His 2026 base salary can increase if Barkley hits the same incentives during the 2025 season. (Most of his salary this year came from an $11.6 million signing bonus.)

Four More Years

The extension will keep Barkley, 28, in Philadelphia for the next four seasons, meaning he won’t be a free agent until after the 2028 season, when he’s 32, which tends to be toward the back end of a running back’s career. 

Full details of Barkley’s new contract weren’t immediately available, but Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, a website dedicated to NFL contracts, speculated on X/Twitter that it is likely similar to Christian McCaffrey’s. In this case, too, the Eagles tacked on a lot of money at the end of the contract and guaranteed the existing money in the deal. 

Barkley’s deal for $20 million per year tops McCaffrey’s, which was signed in June 2024 for two years and $38 million, or $19 million a year.