Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles: Can ’unique’ and ’hilarious’ narratives lead champions back to Super Bowl? | NFL News

One hurdles the world’s greatest athletes in reverse. The other forgets the existence of nerves on the NFL’s most aspired stage. Both are narrative-crushing slayers of history-seeking Kansas City Chiefs.

Together Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts glisten and conquer in frost of their own icy design, primed to spearhead another Super Bowl assault as faces of football’s most complete team.

The Philadelphia Eagles raise the curtain on the 2025 season this Thursday as they host the Dallas Cowboys seven months removed from their dismantling of the three-peat-chasing Chiefs to lift the Lombardi Trophy last February.

Superdome supremacy in New Orleans would play stage to a commanding Hurts performance in the face of unrivalled pressure against football’s modern dynasty, while punctuating a campaign in which Barkley soared to record-breaking numbers after escaping the grotty running lanes of New York to arrive as a defining puzzle piece.

Philly’s pick-your-poison conundrum is back to do it all over again.

’We knew the minute we got him’

While Giants owner John Mara endured pre-empted sleepless nights, Barkley bludgeoned his way to a league-leading 2,005 rushing yards within a league-leading 2,283 scrimmage yards as the heartbeat of Nick Sirianni’s multi-pronged Eagles attack.

Nestled behind a Jeff Stoutland-orchestrated offensive line, he resumes as a perfect dance partner for his quarterback.

”Saquon brings a unique element of explosiveness, speed and power, and the implications he can have on the game and how he plays a game have been big,” Hurts tells Sky Sports.

”I always recall we’ve always had great players, and specifically, we’ve always had a great run game. And we’ve had Pro Bowlers the last three or four years at the running back position.

”He’s definitely taking it up a notch in terms of just his ability and what he’s able to do, and just a complimentary element of everyone complimenting each other. So he’s a great player, and I’m definitely appreciative to have him by my side.”

Barkley had arrived in free agency on a three-year, $37.75m deal as a catalyst effect of the Giants’ favouring royally-flawed investment in quarterback Daniel Jones, who was later benched and then released during the 2024 season. This offseason the running back was rewarded with a two-year, $41.2m contract extension after haunting his former employers as a seamless, now-ring-bearing success story.

”[We had] tremendous belief in him as a player, as a person,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman told Sky Sports.

”When you play against guys year after year, and you see the impact that they have on the field against you, the impact they have on their teams. You can feel it.”

He represents the brightest beacon of an expertly-constructed Championship-winning roster, offering stardust to a trench-dominant team priding itself on one of the league’s most accomplished offensive lines and elite pass rush depth.

”It’s kind of a gut [feel] when guys are on the field and they impact the game like he does,” Roseman continued. ”You know how you feel when you’re playing against them as an opponent. And so when you get an opportunity to add them to your team, those opportunities are few and far between.

”Impact players are hard to find in this league, and so the minute we got him, we felt like it was just the right fit for us. Obviously, didn’t know how that would translate in terms of yards and production, but knew what an impact he would have on our team, on and off the field.”

’Hurts debate is hilarious’

Barkley’s services were largely unrequired against Steve Spagnuolo’s famed defense in February’s finale as Sirianni afforded his workhorse talisman a quiet night while turning to Hurts and his aerial attack.

Sure, Vic Fangio’s Jalen Carter-flaunting defense took a sledgehammer to Kansas City’s pass protection. But it was to be Hurts’ greatest night as he out-duelled Mahomes with one of the most polished performances of his career to avenge Philly’s marginal defeat to the Chiefs at the Super Bowl two years earlier.

He had landed in Louisiana as perhaps the most scrutinised cog within the Eagles machine, his influence questioned and his place among the league’s elite quarterbacks pondered. Those around him thought and think otherwise.

”There’s always so much debate with him, and it’s hilarious, like, he’s awesome. What a baller, what a stud,” head coach Sirianni told Sky Sports.

”I think people get so carried away with passing yards stats. Passing yards is an indication of your team sometimes in the sense of, like, we were in four-minute [offense] a lot, we were handing the ball off in the fourth quarter an awful lot, and what I love about Jalen is just his selflessness. All he cares about is winning.

”And the stat I like to look at as far as for quarterback players, their quarterback rating and that tells you how efficient a guy is. Jalen’s quarterback rating was over 100 last year, and that’s rare. That’s hard to do.”

Hurts finished the 2024 campaign 248 of 361 passing (68.7 per cent) for 2,903 yards and 18 touchdowns to five interceptions, alongside 150 carries for 630 yards and 14 touchdowns.

He, meanwhile, ranked fifth among quarterbacks in EPA+CPOE composite (Expected Points Added combined with Completion Percentage Over Expected), and entered the Super Bowl riding a streak of 206 consecutive postseason pass attempts without an interception as well as seven successive postseason games with at least 20 passes and zero interceptions.

The 2020 second-round pick had starred at Super Bowl LVII in 2023 when he went toe to toe with Mahomes by completing 27 of 38 passes for 304 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 70 yards and three touchdowns. This time he finished 17 of 22 for 221 yards, two scores and a pick as well as rushing for 72 yards and a touchdown.

Even with 40 points on the board, he barely afforded himself a smirk on the sideline. He was the coolest man in the stadium, ignorant to an environment that has swallowed up many before him.

”Just look at him in the big-time games,” Sirianni continued. ”You know, look at him in the NFC Championship game. Look at him in the Super Bowl. He’s always playing his best football when his best football is required.

”That’s what you love about him. You love his selflessness. You love his competitiveness and big-time games. I love how efficient he is. And I go back and I’ll say it selflessness again.

”It’s just because, that’s when people want to look at like touchdown passes. Well, we’ve ran a lot in Saquon and he’s damn efficient.

”Just an awesome competitor. Love, love that he’s the quarterback of this team, just a big-time player.”

Eagles ’evolution’

Some new wrinkles could be on the menu for Hurts, Barkley and the Eagles this season following a change in personnel on the sideline.

Kellen Moore departed as offensive coordinator to become the new head coach of the New Orleans Saints, and was replaced by the promoted Kevin Patullo following his role as pass game coordinator.

”It’s definitely evolved, definitely evolved, and it’s going to continue to evolve for Coach Patullo, he’s coming in, and the one thing that I recognise off the gate is just his conviction, his leadership qualities and his assertiveness and what he wants and how he wants to do that,” said Hurts.

”And he has an open ear, and it’s a balance of having an open ear and also doing what you’re convicted to do as a coach and leader and constructor of the offense.

”It’s been a great collaboration, and trying to build that out and trying to find the best ways for us to go out there and be the type of offense we desire to be.”

Sirianni jokes of his ’jealousy’ having witnessed Patullo and Moore attached to the hip of one another last season, the latter a prominent feature in head coaching candidacy in recent years. Before then it had been Patullo learning alongside Sirianni.

It would serve as preparation for taking the reins on an offense that ranked sixth in EPA/play last season, while sitting eighth in total yards and seventh in scoring. As Barkley ran riot, AJ Brown posted his third straight 1,000-yard season since joining the Eagles and DeVonta Smith contributed 833 yards, the two wide receivers combining for 15 touchdown catches while also missing four games apiece.

”Kevin’s been such a important piece of this puzzle that we’ve had here for the past four years,” said Sirianni. ”It was a seamless transition. Everything he knows about the things that we’ve done well, things we haven’t done well, things we want to grow and things we want to marry, and then his relationship with the players is top notch.”

Awaiting him is a luxury weapon in the form of Barkley, whose influence shows no sign of wavering.

”I think Saquon can do everything well, to be quite honest with you, but then also trying to find ways to expand him and use his talents even more,” said Sirianni.

”That takes a lot of offseason communication, a lot of offseason studies. And Kevin’s done an awesome job doing those things, because we’ve got one of the best players in the game with Saquon Barkley.”

’Takes more than talent’

In February Hurts offered up one of the latest iconic photos in Super Bowl history as he celebrated and processed first-time glory by clutching the Lombardi Trophy while smoking a cigar. Defeat two years earlier had arguably made it sweeter.

”It was a moment,” he said. ”It was just a moment. A moment of reflection and embracing the journey that has come and everything that has led to that. So it was just a moment of me soaking it all in and listening to… doing what I normally do, just having the trophy in front of me, I guess.”

Alongside him and Barkley comes a top-tier receiving duo in Brown and Smith, the league’s most formidable offensive tackle tandem in Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailta, with which to anchor a ludicrously smooth post-Jason Kelce plan in Cam Jurgens, and the league’s best defense.

The champions kick off as favourites.

”It’s truly about just embracing the grind in itself,” Hurts said of chasing another Super Bowl berth. ”Building that foundation and instilling a sense of competitiveness with the new unit we have today.

”One thing that is often talked about is just the collective. To do special things, it takes more than just talent. It takes a collective effort and intentionality of winning together. And that’s what we’re in pursuit of.”

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