The numbers are in for Saquon Barkley’s new contract via Pro Football Talk, so lets break down this highly discussed massive $41.2 million contract extension for Barkley.
The basics of the contract are as follows:
Barkley will earn $16.5 million in 2025, all of which is fully guaranteed and most of which will be paid out as an option bonus.
Barkley will earn $17 million in 2026, all of which is fully guaranteed and most of which will be paid out as an option bonus.
Barkley will earn $16 million in 2027, with $2.5 million fully guaranteed with again almost the entire salary coming as an option bonus.
Barkley’s salary in 2028 is $19.2 million, $1 million of which is paid as a roster bonus and most everything else comes as, you guessed it, an option bonus.
There are multiple void years for proration purposes.
In every year of the contract Barkely can earn $1.5 million in incentives and each time he earns them there is a future option escalator that also increased by a corresponding amount.
So what exactly does this all mean.
I think it is pretty clear that the Eagles are taking this contract as a whole, basically just going back to day 1 and saying this is what it should look like now. The five year base total for the Eagles would now work out to $81.95 million for an average of $16.39 million per year, which is slightly more than Christian McCaffrey’s record setting APY on a long term contract back in 2020 of $16 million per year. The guarantee would now stand at $49.25 million which would be 2nd in NFL history for a running back. If taken as a four year contract we are looking at $17.175 million a year with the most likely to earned years averaging $16.5 million over three years. We are valuing the contract at the $20.6 million number since that is how it will be reported but I don’t believe anyone around the NFL will look at it this way.
The mechanics of the contract are nearly identical to CMC’s extension from San Francisco last year but with a much better guarantee package and in return slightly lower raises.
Barkley received a $3.75 million raise in 2025, similar to the $4M raise received by CMC on his deal. This was just enough of a raise to make Barkley the top earner at the position for 2025.
In 2026 the raise is $2.25 million over his existing contract. This easily makes him the top earner at the position that year. CMC earned a $4M raise in his 2nd year.
In 2027 we hit all new money with $16 million in salary and then the big salary jump in 2028 to $19.2 million.
Realistically the way to look at this is the Eagles agreed to pay Barkley an additional $6 million over his existing contract with the Eagles taking on the risk of fully guaranteeing his 2026 season now rather than having an ability to release him that year. Given that there are no significant guarantees in the 3rd year of this contract the Eagles would have every ability to renegotiate the contract downward if Barkley’s performance dropped significantly. None of this has the excitement that comes with saying a $20.6M per year running back, but it sounds great for the position and lets the Eagles dominate the news cycle for a few days due to their contract for Barkley even though in the end it is not a massive adjustment from his original contract.
From a salary cap perspective we have to wait and see if his incentives this year count against the cap or not. The conditions themselves would lead me to think they count at $1.5 million but many teams will try to find a way to put a minor clause in there that makes them NLTBE. If they are NLTBE then the Eagles created $700,000 in cap room. If they are LTBE then they will lose $800,000 in cap room. I currently have them as NLTBE and not counting but if his numbers change that is why. The cap numbers in 2026 are virtually identical between the original and modified contract.