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Saquon Barkley capped off a historic season with a Super Bowl title and a record all to himself, though not the performance many expected.
Barkley rushed for just 57 yards on 25 carries and caught six passes for 40 yards in the Eagles’ 40–22 win over the Chiefs for the organization’s second Super Bowl title. It marked Barkley’s lowest rushing total of the season since he had 47 yards in the Eagles’ Week 6 win over the Browns in October.
It was still enough for Barkley to pass Terrell Davis for a somewhat obscure record. In 1998, Davis ran for 2,476 yards between the regular season and playoffs, which was the NFL record until Sunday.
Barkley finished the season with 2,504 rushing yards in 20 games. The win, which came on his 28th birthday, gave him a $250,000 contract bonus for winning the Super Bowl. That was the last remaining performance incentive in his 2024 contract.
By hitting all of his contract incentives, which included $250,000 for being named first-team All-Pro, eclipsing 2,000 yards rushing and receiving, and for winning the Super Bowl and NFC championship, Barkley took home $1.5 million in incentives this season and will see the same amount added to his base salary for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
Before the season, Barkley signed a three-year deal worth $37 million with the Eagles with $26 million guaranteed. His base salary for the 2024 season was $1.375 million and will now start at $2.875 million for the following two seasons. Should Barkley somehow replicate his 2024 season next year and the Eagles repeat as Super Bowl champions his base contract for 2026 would start at $4.375 million. (Most of Barkley’s salary this year was an $11.6 million signing bonus.)
Even running his contract up to $15 million, Barkley is still a bargain and takes up only a small portion of Philadelphia’s cap. He made less money this year than Darius Slay, Dallas Goedert, and Bryce Huff, according to Spotrac.
Barkley had a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season NFL rushing record of 2,105 yards from 1984. He ultimately sat out the regular-season finale and finished 100 yards short of the mark.
By missing the mark, there was speculation if Barkley cost himself any money by passing on the chance to be the NFL’s rushing king by breaking a 40-year-old record.
“Records are nice, but winning is better,” Doug Shabelman, the CEO of Burns Entertainment, which negotiates endorsement deals for celebrities, previously told Front Office Sports.
In the end, Barkley got both.
