Eagles

Super Bowl LIX Comparisons: Running Backs

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Saquon Barkley, Leap Jaguars

Leading up to the Philadelphia Eagles rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Sports Talk Philly and Eagledelphia will compare the personnel of the two teams each day until gameday is here.

In this edition of our week-long comparison, we will look at the running backs that the Eagles and Chiefs will field for the big game.


Philadelphia RBs | Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Gainwell, Will Shipley

Former Penn State running back Saquon Barkley has been one of the biggest steals from free agency last year. Few runners have cracked 2000 rushing yards in a season and he did it while sitting out the final game of the season and several fourth quarters of games that were in hand. He wound up with 2005 rushing yards, 278 receiving yards, 94 first downs, and 15 touchdowns during the regular season. He’s only added in the postseason with 475 more yards, 16 more first downs, and five more touchdowns. There’s a reason he’s an MVP and OPTY finalist – he’s been nothing short of incredible. 

Kenneth Gainwell is in the final year of his original deal with Philadelphia, who drafted him back in 2021. He took a bit of a step back in terms of his share of the carries, but for good reason seeing who was in front of him. Gainwell took 75 rushes for 290 yards during the regular season and added 116 more through the air. He had 17 first downs himself and has added 58 yards and four first downs over the past few weeks. He exited with a concussion during the last game, so his availability will likely remain in question until closer to the game.

Will Shipley, a rookie drafted this year, had just 117 yards during the regular season as a rarely-used back outside special teams. He is coming off a game where he put the hammer down with the backup unit, however – he took four rushes to push the second unit 77 yards downfield of burning clock to score another touchdown in the NFC Championship game last week, showing some promise there.


Kansas City RBs | Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt, Samaje Perine

Pacheco’s 310 yards rushing on just 83 attempts is his worst season in the league. He’s technically still listed as the team’s RB1 but missed most of the season with injury. Even in the playoffs, he hasn’t actually been used as the team’s primary back, so he may not be all the way back from his injury and probably isn’t in the best form to play his best ball.

Hunt has filled in as the lead for most of the year and has 728 yards on 200 attempts. He’s also taken the most rushing attempts this postseason with 25 for 108 yards and two touchdowns. His regular season statistics are not impressive for a lead back, but he has performed better in the two postseason games than he did during the regular season.

Perine is a receiving back for KC, with just 92 rushing yards on the year but 322 receiving yards. He’s been hardly used during the postseason.


Edge:

This one is a clear and easy win for the Eagles. Shipley might be in better shape to play this game than any of the Chiefs options, let alone Saquon Barkley, who can set a record in the Super Bowl for most yards rushing in the season+postseason. Unless Pacheco suddenly returns to his form from two years ago or Perine gets used heavily and is a leading receiver for the team, it’s hard to imagine that the Chiefs RB room will have more impact on the game than the Eagles room would.


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Eagles
Chiefs