What if the Rams had signed Saquon Barkley?

Tortured by Saquon Barkley, plagued by fumbles, the Rams should have spent their money elsewhere

Never before has one team been so dominated by one running back in one season when the player wasn’t even in their own division. Saquon Barkley rushed for 205 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Eagles 28-22 win over the Rams on Sunday, giving him a total of 460 rushing yards, four touchdowns, and 74 receiving yards in two games against L.A..

Of all the splashy moves that Les Snead has made in his career as the Rams GM, from additions like Matthew Stafford, Von Miller, and Odell Beckham, Jr., we might have assumed a year ago that L.A. would target Barkley as a free agent.

Instead they stayed on the saddle of Kyren Williams and missed their chance at hosting the NFC Championship game because of the best running back in the NFL…

• Saquon Barkley signed a three-year, $37.8 million contract with $26 million guaranteed
• Jonah Jackson signed a three-year, $51 million contract with $25.5 million guaranteed

Call it “revisionist history”, if you want. I’d say it’s a learning experience.

Not only did Saquon Barkley dominate the Rams in a way that no other running back has dominated a team before:

In two games, Barkley had four runs of 60+ yards against the L.A. Rams, which itself would be tied for the most 60+ yard runs that ANY player has had in a TOTAL SEASON. (Barkley finished with six total 60+ yard runs, an NFL record.)

But consider what Kyren Williams has done this season.

On the stat sheet, “19 carries for 106 yards” seems good. But Kyren Williams also fumbled 5 times in the regular season (including TWICE against the Eagles, Barkley’s first 200+ yard game against the Rams) and he fumbled in BOTH playoff games.

That’s seven fumbles in Kyren’s last 14 games.

Saquon Barkley has seven fumbles in the last four seasons combined.

You may be saying to yourself, “So what? It’s not like the Rams were going to sign Saquon Barkley!”

Why not? They’re the L.A. Rams. They like splashy moves more than any team in the NFL. And it’s worked out GREAT for them. After going in spending hibernation in 2023, the Rams had cap space and cash in 2024. They don’t have the same offensive line as the Eagles and this surely could have influenced Barkley to stay in the Northeast more than money, but it wouldn’t have hurt to try and offer him a lot of money.

The Rams were never a rumored destination for Barkley, but the Ravens, Chargers, and Bears were believed to be serious suitors, as were the Eagles and Giants, of course. The Chargers saw an opportunity to bring Barkley to L.A., but we’ll never know if Snead and Sean McVay saw it that way.

He probably wouldn’t have rushed for 2,000 yards with the Rams — not that McVay was unaware of how to utilize Todd Gurley as an All-Pro back the last time he had that much talent at the position — but here are two things that signing Barkley would have done:

• Replaced Kyren Williams
• Kept Barkley from gaining over 500(!) yards against them in two games

And why not sign Barkley?

Well, it could be related to the teams that have to live with the fact that they invested too much of their belief system in analytics and “running backs don’t matter”, as Barkley runs into the NFC Championship game and Derrick Henry falling less than 100 yards shy of his second career 2,000-yard season.

Keep in mind that the Rams paid Colby Parkinson a three-year, $22.5 million contract to be L.A.’s third tight end, and gave the same amount of money to Darious Williams, a 31-year-old corner who had been cut by the Jaguars.

That amounts to over $31 million spent per season on Jonah Jackson, Colby Parkinson, and Darious Williams, three players with no future on the Rams.

Now the media will ask, “Who is the next Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry?” as teams seek running back replacements in 2025 — one of those teams has to be the L.A. Rams — and the answer is…You’re probably too late.