Eagles GM Howie Roseman: Adding Saquon Barkley was 'way to zig when everyone's zagging'

Last offseason, a number of running backs struggled with an apparent devaluation of the position, leading to stalemates on contract extensions and trade requests from several high-profile ball-carriers.

This offseason, free agency saw a number of big-name RBs find new teams, albeit on contracts dwarfed by other premium positions on both sides of the ball.

The Eagles capitalized on that. They still made Saquon Barkley the top money-getter of the 2024 class of free-agent backs on a per-year average thanks to a three-year, $37.75 million contract, but nonetheless added a game-changing figure at an easily manageable price tag.

"From our perspective, you get to a situation where you kind of try to find, is something being undervalued?" Philadelphia's general manager Howie Roseman told Adam Schein last week on Mad Dog Sports Radio. "Is there a way to zig when everyone's zagging? Or I don't know if it's the opposite, and you're freakin' zagging when zigging. But I think that it's hard to find difference-making players and people, and it's hard to find them for a cost. Those guys, they go for a lot of money, and we felt like there was an opportunity to get one of those guys in Saquon and bring him to the team."

Barkley's $12.58 million-per-year average over the next three seasons places him fourth on the overall ranking at his position, just above Josh Jacobs, signed by the Packers for $48 million over four years, and three spots above Derrick Henry, now on the Ravens averaging $8 million a season through 2025.

His average-per-year cost places Barkley between the Falcons' Darnell Mooney ($13 million) and the Jets' Allen Lazard ($11 million) compared to wide receivers. He just beats out Cole Kmet's $12.5 million per-year average for