Saquon Barkley signing with Philadelphia Eagles is 'transformative' move, per Dan Orlovsky

The Philadelphia Eagles won free agency day one with Saquon Barkley coming to the city of Brotherly Love. That’s the way ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky sees it.

With a Super Bowl window seemingly still open for the Eagles, they added Barkley after he was not brought back by the New York Giants. Keeping a high caliber running back within the division was quite the move.

While acknowledging the Giants had a good first day, Barkley signing with the Eagles was “transformative.”

“The Giants and Eagles are obviously in two different timeframes,” Orlovsky said on Get Up. “The Philadelphia Eagles are still a Super Bowl contender. So that’s why you go and may be overly aggressive and go get a Saquon Barkley because he’s a transformative talent. We’ve seen Saquon be good in really, really, really bad situations. I’m just telling everybody, it’s never been this easy.” 

Orlovsky compared Barkley’s move to the Eagles to Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers. Since the latter went out west, he’s arguably been the best player on the team and helped the 49ers to the Super Bowl this season.

“Just think of what Christian McCaffrey’s impact was in San Francisco and everyone’s like, well, he was really good and Carolina,” Orlovsky said. “Well, he’s even better in San Francisco because his job is easier. Saquon is going to be significantly better in Philadelphia because his job is going to be easier. 

“So is Jalen Hurts’, so is (Dallas) Goedert’s) and DeVonta (Smith’s) and A.J. (Brown’s). So this is a transformative move and we haven’t kind of felt the gravity of it. I also agree that the Giants had a really good day. They let their face of their franchise go as well. Like, that could be true. He’s their guy.”

This season, Barkley rushed for 962 yards in 14 games with six touchdowns for New York. He also had 41 receptions for 280 yards and four touchdowns. 

It was just the third season in his career in which he didn’t surpass 1,000 rushing yards, but he only played 14 of 17 games. In 2022, he had 1,312 rushing yards and 338 receiving yards.The second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Penn State, Barkley has been a dominant force for the New York Giants in almost every season since. He’s earned NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (2018) and two Pro Bowl nominations.