Saquon Barkley was among a group of running backs who took part in a Zoom call in 2023 to discuss the depressed market for their position.
As recently as last season, Barkley was the only running back averaging more than $20 million annually. Bijan Robinson, Jahmyr Gibbs and Jonathan Taylor have all signed deals recently that put them at $22 million or more per season.
Barkley, who has an annual average of $20.6 million, ranks below all three now.
“I love it. That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Barkley said Thursday, via Zach Berman of TheAthletic.com. “Christian [McCaffrey] did it before me. I did it after Christian. And now we have three in a row. I look forward to the next guys to do it. It was like that for every other position besides running back. You can see that coming back to life. Those guys are very deserving of it. They’re helluva players, make a lot of impact in games for their teams. Their teams are different when they’re not on the field. Hopefully in the next 5-10 years, it keeps going higher. That’s how it’s supposed to go.”