Super Bowl title caps Barkley's all-time great season

John Mara probably didn't get much sleep last night.

The Giants owner gave us one of the best moments in "Hard Knocks" history when he dreaded the thought of Saquon Barkley leaving for the division rival Eagles in free agency. If only he knew the degree to which he'd be proved right.

Barkley is a first-time Super Bowl champion after his debut season in Philadelphia, and this wasn't a case of a player simply fitting in and going along for the ride. The new Eagles superstar was the driving force that pushed a supremely talented team over the top. It's the best campaign we've ever seen from a running back.

The regular-season numbers alone put him in rarefied air. Barkley's 2,005 rushing yards are the eighth most in NFL history. Were the Eagles not in a position to rest their starters in a meaningless Week 18 finale, he probably would have added the 101 yards necessary to break Eric Dickerson's single-season record; Barkley averaged 125.3 yards across 16 games.

He was even better in the first three weeks of the playoffs, racking up 556 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Eagles back to football's biggest stage. His 205 yards in a divisional-round win over the Rams were the fifth most ever in a postseason game.

The Chiefs completely sold out to stop the run Sunday, holding Barkley to just 57 yards on 25 carries. But his presence was felt nonetheless. The focus on No. 26 opened up plenty of one-on-one opportunities for the Eagles in the downfield passing game, and he contributed another 40 yards as a receiver. Crucially, his blitz pickup in the first quarter cleared the way for Jalen Hurts to launch a deep ball that set up the first touchdown of the contest.

It wasn't the monster rushing performance many expected, but Barkley's Super Bowl numbers were enough to surpass Terrell Davis and set a new combined (regular season and playoffs) single-season rushing record, which now stands at 2,504 yards. Barkley and Davis are the only two running backs in NFL history to win it all after topping the 2,000-yard mark in the regular season.

The Eagles' success with one superstar workhorse is a far cry from how championship teams have been built over the last decade.

An outstanding supporting cast certainly helped, which never would have happened in New York. But he took full advantage of the situation, finishing the regular season with 549 rush yards over expected, second only to Derrick Henry and the third most in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2018).

It won't be easy for other teams to replicate this formula for success - there's only one Saquon Barkley. But it's still an important reminder that there's more than one way to win games, no matter how much attention we give to quarterbacks.

A consistent rushing attack can sustain drives, theoretically minimize the risk of turnovers, and keep the ball away from the opponent. At a time when defenses are built exclusively to combat the passing game - even down to the body types you see in the trenches - consider it a zig when most of the league is zagging.

The devaluation of the running back position has created a market in which elite players can be had at extremely affordable numbers. Barkley, the third-place finisher in MVP voting, is the third-highest paid RB at $12.58 million per year, according to Over The Cap. There are 31 wide receivers making more.

That's a low price for a player who can take a team to another level. The Eagles understood the market inefficiency and the unique talent they were getting. Their reward was one of the best individual seasons we'll ever see and a Super Bowl title.

Running backs are so back.