The Philadelphia Eagles have a new offense.
The Philadelphia Eagles hired Sean Mannion as their new offensive coordinator for the 2026 season.
That means Saquon Barkley and Co. are using training camp and preseason to learn the new offense.
"I think it's pretty cool that you start from scratch, learn a new language, get familiar with a new system. It's fun," Barkley said, via Eagles.com. "The way you take it is a little bit different ... as a competitor, you welcome that challenge."
In a story from ESPN called "Execs, coaches, scouts rank top NFL running backs for 2026," Barkley came in at No. 3. Only Bijan Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons and Jahmyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions are ahead of Barkley, who had 1,140 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns in 2025. The three-time Pro Bowler put up 2,005 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns in his first season with the Eagles in 2024.
"I'm not going to penalize him for a terrible all-around offense last year," a high-ranking personnel official with an NFL team said. "He's still a three-down weapon and if I needed a running back for one season I'm still taking him 1."
Since 2024, Barkley ranks second in 100-plus-yard rushing games (14) behind Derrick Henry (17) of the Baltimore Ravens.
However, that didn't stop an NFL coordinator from taking a shot at the Penn State product.
"My only criticism is that he doesn't always produce when things aren't completely clean," an NFL coordinator said. "That's dating back to the Giants. Tends to need things perfectly set up for him."
Barkley has played for the New York Giants and Eagles. He enters next season with 8,356 rushing yards and 55 rushing touchdowns.
"I've been intrigued with this kind of system," Barkley said. "Watching it from afar and seeing a lot of guys have a lot of success in it. The thing that changes for me, you coach it a little bit different. Outside zone, wide zone, the read is pretty much the same, but just getting more of a one-cut (up the field) mindset. All of us (running backs in the NFL), unless you're in a system like this in college, most of us come from (shot)gun (formation) ... more of an inside zone (running scheme).
"You see guys struggle in the outside zone at the beginning, but I've been working on it and having that one-cut mentality but still doing it the way I like to get out of the cut – efficient and being in line with the offensive line."
The Eagles won the NFC East last season. However, they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the 2026 playoffs' wild-card round at home.
It will be fascinating to see how Philadelphia's offense performs with Mannion calling plays. Barkley looked like the best player in the NFL during the 2024 season. He came back down to earth in 2025.
"How are we going to attack things and build? We are all working at it," Barkley said. "It is all a little different, and we are all going through that in the offense. We do it together. We learn the same and that's the best way to do it – as a team."
