“There is Nothing They Can’t Do”: Saquon Barkley Gives Credit To His Offensive Line After Making the Madden Cover

The honors continued to roll in for Saquon Barkley this week, as he was recently announced as the cover athlete for EA Sports’ latest edition of their famous football video game, Madden 26. The smart folks at EA decided to use Barkley’s unprecedented reverse hurdle for the cover image. That resulted in objectively one of the coolest covers in the history of the game.

There are a couple of reasons why Barkley was chosen for this honor. It largely comes down to his record-breaking season, which resulted in a Super Bowl ring and an Offensive Player of the Year award. And the biggest reason for that wacky good 2024 campaign for Barkley (and the Philadelphia Eagles overall) was his offensive line.

Whenever a player runs for 2,000 yards (Barkley became one of nine to accomplish the feat last year) or achieves something great in the NFL, they’re acutely aware that they didn’t do it alone. Barkley is the same.

Barkley is quick to give his hogs on the Eagles the credit and flowers they deserve whenever he gets the chance, as he did during an appearance on Chris Long’s podcast this week.

“No diss to any offensive line that came before. But there’s nothing they can’t do. There’s not any scheme that they can’t block,” said Barkley.

“Some guys are better at gap schemes, some guys are better at zone, some guys are better at outside zone, some guys are better at toss. They can do it all… We’ve hit it in so many different ways.”

After the Eagles won the Super Bowl, one of the first things Barkley did was buy his offensive line group a well-deserved gift—a truckload of Bud Light. And that is no joke. Barkley wasn’t done there, however.

When the star RB and Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts were invited to appear on the Jimmy Fallon show to celebrate the Super Bowl win, Barkley insisted he wouldn’t attend unless his offensive linemen were allowed on the broadcast as well. It ended in classic Philly fashion, with Barkley and the hogs shotgunning beers alongside Hurts and Fallon on late-night TV.

Much has been made of the sheer size of Philly’s starting group in the trenches.

• Left tackle Jordan Mailata, named a Second-Team All-Pro last year, is the big boy of the group at 6’8″ and 368 pounds.
• Left guard Landon Dickerson, named a Pro Bowler for the third straight year in 2024, stands 6’6″ and 332 pounds.
• At the pivot, Cam Jurgens, also a 2024 Pro Bowler, is comparatively compact at 6’3″ and 303 pounds.
• The weakest link of the group (though he would probably be the strongest on most o-lines), right guard Mekhi Becton, is nearly as big as Mailata at 6’8″ and 363 pounds.
• Veteran right tackle Lane Johnson, who was named to his fifth All-Pro and sixth Pro Bowl teams last year, continues to cut an imposing figure at age 35 at 6’6″ and 325 pounds.

That’s an average of 6’6″ and 338 pounds, not to mention four of the five got Pro Bowl or All-Pro recognition or both. So Philly’s O-line was not just big, they were actually very good at their jobs. Credit to offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. They were the only group to finish top six in both PFF’s pass-blocking (73.6, sixth) and run-blocking grades (76.9) last year.

The best part about it is: the Eagles could keep this group largely together for a while. Mekhi Becton departed in free agency, but the rest are locked in. Johnson is 35, but he was an All-Pro and Pro Bowler last season and is signed through 2027.

Mailata and Dickerson both signed extensions through 2028 last year, and Jurgens signed an extension through 2029 this offseason. Saquon Barkley could go on an unprecedented run over the next few years if this group maintains their All-Pro levels through their respective extensions.