Eagles’ Saquon Barkley Says He Has Plenty Left: ‘Who Are You To Tell Me How Long I Can Play?’

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley doesn’t want to hear the talk that he may be over-the-hill when his contract is up. That would be three years from now. Barkley, 27, is new to the Eagles after his run with the New York Giants.

“That’s [BS],” Barkley told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Marcus Allen played until he was 36, 37 years old. Some of the greats that I admire and I look up and study, they played well into their 30s. Barry (Sanders) left at 29, 30 and he left in his prime. It’s what you put in, what you put in is what you get out. That’s any position. There’s this weird thing with running backs right now. Is it a difficult position to play? Yes. Do you take wear and tear? Yes. But who are you or anyone else to tell me how long I can play the game? I call [BS].

“When it’s over for me, it’s over for me. But I feel like if I continue to put the right stuff in my body and do the right things, there will be a day when I’m 32 or 33, and I want to hang it up, and I’m going to do it just because.”

A lot of NFL running backs do start to decline after the age of, say, 28. Barkley also suffered a torn ACL in 2020, and while he’s been darn good, he’s probably not the franchise-changer that he was expected to be.

Nonetheless, the Eagles are clear believers, signing the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 draft to a deal that could be worth up to $46 million with incentives.

“I’ve been trying to control everything,” Barkley told the Inquirer. “Like, ‘I have to do this so I won’t get hurt.’ I can’t control that. My three or four injuries I’ve had in the NFL are flukes. There was nothing I could do to change them. But that’s what it is — everything I want to be and all the potential people talk about; when I’m on the field, I’m that and more.”