Saquon Barkley sideswipes New York Giants after Philadelphia Eagles clinch the NFC East

Saquon Barkley is having the best season of his professional career for more reasons than one.

With a 41-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles (13-3) clinched the NFC East. That’s also now the first time that Barkley has been a part of a divisional winner as a player after six seasons with the New York Giants, which he himself noted this afternoon. However, there’s also still much more for he and Philly to do.

“Yeah, um, it’s cool,” Barkley said postgame. “I’m not going to downplay it. But, like I said, at the end of the day, um, you know, you’re not getting remembered for being the 2024 NFC East division champs.”

“I’m happy – my first hat and t-shirt game. I didn’t even know that was a thing to be honest,” smiled Barkley. “So I’m happy to be part of that and we did it as a team. But we all know what the goal is.”

That’s a tough thing to hear for the Giants. They have not won that division since 2011 and have been in the top-two in the standings for it just twice since 2013. That’ll continue this year at 3-13 in last place in the NFC East behind Philadelphia, Dallas, and Washington.

It’s also even worse considering how well Barkley is playing this year as a candidate for NFL MVP. Following today’s game, Barkley has rushed past 2,000 yards for the eighth-most all-time in a single season. He’s now only 100 yards shy of the 40-year record held by Eric Dickerson. With that, he also leads the league in rushing yards and rushing yards per game at 125.3 a game while being second at 5.9 yard per carry. He has also run for 13 scores on the season.

With that, Barkley is one of the leading candidates for Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year. He could further make his case if he were to play in the season finale and break the record. Ironically, he’d have the chance to do that against none other than that former team of his in the Giants.

Barkley is having a career year with what both he and his team are accomplishing. There’s more to achieve, though, with history in sight for him as well as the playoffs being just ahead now for Philadelphia.