When Saquon Barkley signed with the Eagles, we knew they were getting a very good player. What we did not know at the time was how good. We did not know that he would flirt with history, and eventually do something only 8 other players have ever done and that no Eagles RB has ever done.
He came out of the gates on fire. A 3 TD debut against the Packers down in Brazil. Including 109 rushing yards and 23 receiving yards. But that was just the start. He went on to smash personal records, both single-game and single-season, smash the Eagles single-season and single-game rushing record, and as mentioned, become only the 9th player in NFL history to rush for 2000 yards.
He even flirted with breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. 101 yards shy with a game to go. The Eagles decided to prioritize rest and health over the record, and he never got the chance to break it. But it was indisputably a tremendous debut season.
Where does it rank among the All-Time best seasons by Eagles players though? Is it the best of all time, or or there Eagles who have put together even better seasons?
Related: The 12 Best Moments of the Eagles 2024 Season
They have been around for a long time. They have existed since 1933. They only recently started winning, but have done a lot of winning to make up for lost time (2 Super Bowls now). But even when they were losing, the team has had some amazing players. But what were the best seasons by those players in franchise history?
Keep in mind I am 31. I tried to take players that came from before my time into account, but obviously, my knowledge base is mostly 2000 until now, when I was old enough to truly appreciate and remember what I was watching. So there may be a slightly modern bias.
Here are the 13 Greatest Seasons By Eagles Players:
13) Steve Van Buren- 1945
This one is tough. I don’t know how to rank it because I genuinely have no one I can talk to in my life who was old enough to not only witness it but remember it. But on paper, it is tough to argue with.
Van Buren led the NFL in rushing yards, rushing TDs, yards per game, kick return average, kick return TDs, and all-purpose yards. He carried the team on his back to make the Eagles the league’s highest-scoring offense. They did not win it all that year. But we aren’t going by team performance, we are going by individual performance. And what Steve Van Buren did that season was special.
12) Chuck Bednarik- 1953
Another old-school player I have no frame of reference for. I am sure someone will give me grief for not ranking this, or Van Buren higher, but again, I didn’t see it, and apart from a few callers to the station, I don’t know many people who did witness it. Still, Bednarik deserves love. He had 10 takeaways in 12 games this season. 4 fumbles and 6 interceptions. That alone is worthy of a spot on this list.
11) Donovan McNabb-2004
We will get to what TO did this season in a bit, but it was special for McNabb too. 3,875 yards, 31 TDS, only 8 picks, and 3 rushing TDs. Also remember, he did not have TO for the playoff run. TO broke his leg and didn’t return to the Super Bowl. So McNabb had to help carry the team to get over that NFC Championship game hump without his star WR.
He led them to wins over the Vikings and Falcons, that Falcons game coming in biting cold, and threw 4 TDs and no picks in those 2 games. It all came off the wheels a bit in the Super Bowl, which kept him from climbing higher on this list. But it was still a special season by the best QB in Eagles history.
Oh, and McNabb had one of the best single-game performances ever for the Eagles, throwing for 464 yards and 5 TDs.
10) Eric Allen – 1993
It can be hard to judge defensive players if you don’t see them play. Especially from the ’90s and earlier when we didn’t have stats available that track yards given up when targeted the way we do now. Also, I was just recently born when Eric Allen played out this season, so I can’t go off my memory either.
But I can ask people who did watch Eric Allen, and shutdown is the word that goes around. But even if you weren’t around to watch him play, like in my case, the few stats we do have tell a convincing story. 6 interceptions. He turned 4 of them into a pick 6. 4 TDs by a defensive player is crazy. Most defensive players hope they get 1 in their career. 4 in a single season is hard to imagine, but he pulled it off.
Add in what everyone says about him being a shutdown corner, I had to get Eric Allen on the list. Side note, congrats to him for finally getting into the Hall of Fame.
9) Carson Wentz-2017
The Wentz era did not go as well as we all thought it would. He barely got into his 2nd contract before he was being traded off the team. But let’s not forget how well it started to earn him that 2nd contract.
33 TDs and 3,296 yards in 13 games. He had the Eagles playing better than any team in the league. And he didn’t exactly have tons of help at WR. Zack Ertz was great of course, and Alshon Jeffrey and Nelson Agholor both had solid seasons, but it is not like he was throwing to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith like Hurts does, or to Terrell Owens like McNabb did for 1 season. He was going to win MVP that season if he did not tear his ACL.
Also, credit to him for tearing his ACL and staying on the field to throw a go-ahead TD in that game.
8) Jalen Hurts- 2022
Much like Carson Wentz, Hurts should have won MVP this season. Had he not missed two games, maybe he would have. But a late injury kept him out for 2 games.
If anything that made his case stronger though. Because while we heard all season any QB could win with this Eagles team, it turned out that was not the case. They went 0-2 without him, despite being 14-1 when he played. There was a lot of talent around him sure, we will talk about one of those players soon, but there is no denying how special Hurts was.
Nearly 4500 total yards, over 30 total TDs, all top go with just 6 interceptions. Hurts was fantastic that season. Then he went on to be tremendous in the Super Bowl. He played better than Mahomes did, his defense just let him down. But with the game on the line, and his team down 8 points, he put together a game-tying drive, scoring the TD and the 2-point conversion himself. He had 370 total yards and 4 total TDs.
7) Terrell Owens- 2004
The TO era in Philly is the biggest waste of potential ever. He should have stayed an Eagle for the rest of his career, and gone on to help the Eagles to their 1st ever Super Bowl, and maybe even help Donovan McNabb put together a Hall of Fame Case. Instead, it went up in smoke after one magical season. But what a season it was.
1200 yards in just 14 games. he took what was a very good team, and made it special. I don’t think the stats even do it justice. And then to break his leg, but come back early to play in the Super Bowl, and then catch 9 passes for 122 yards, he had to place highly on this list.
If only he and McNabb could put their differences aside, and if only Joe Banner didn’t foolishly let his star WR walk, maybe we could have gotten more of this, and perhaps better than this. Instead, everyone involved acted like fools, especially Joe Banner, and the Eagles had to wait 13 years to finally win it all.
6) Nick Foles -2013
27 TDs, 2 interceptions, in 10 starts. That is hard to beat. I originally had it ranked 10th, but I just kept moving it up the list when I thought about it more. Throw in the 7 TD game, and it had to rank top 5.
Some people may turn more to what he did in 2017, and winning the Super Bowl. But that was 2 great performances, not a great season. In 2013 he was great all around. From when he took over, to the end of the season. It’s a season that literally got some of his gear into the Hall Of Fame, with him tying Peyton Manning’s single-game TD record.
5) AJ Brown-2022
TO is only the second-highest WR on this list. Why? Because AJ Brown had an even better season in 2022. 1,496 yards and 11 TDs. A new single-season record, one he almost broke the following season. Brown was a force all season long. No one could cover him. The highlight was a 3 TD game vs the Steelers where he racked up 156 yards on 6 catches.
The like TO, it carried over into the Super Bowl. He made a big play early in the game to put the Eagles ahead. He finished the game with 96 yards and a TD.
4) LeSean McCoy- 2013
It was LeSean McCoy who set the Eagles record that Saquon broke this season. 1607 yards and 9 TDs just on the ground. You can add 539 yards and 2 TDs through the air on top of that. His 2,146 Scrimmage Yards that season led the league. 5.1 yards per carry.
I didn’t think we would ever see a better season by an RB for the Eagles. Certainly not in the modern era. Saquon eventually eclipsed him, but let’s not forget just how great Shady was.
In that season, McCoy had the legendary Snow Bowl game, which is still one of the greatest single-game performances by an Eagles player.
3) Lane Johnson- 2022
You don’t often see Offensive Line make these kinds of lists. But I had to get Lane Johnson in here. The question was where. Looking at his seasons, 2022 stood out to me. Not only did he give up 0 sacks like he usually does, but he gave up just 9 pressures total, and never let anyone hit Jalen Hurts. In that run to the Super Bowl, Hurts never had to worry about his right side. No one was getting through Lane.
But let’s not forget what he went on to do in the playoffs. He had a tear in his abdomen, and never missed a snap in the 3 games. Yet he kept playing at a high level. He faced down Nick Bosa of the Niners, one of the better pass rushers in the league, and shut him down.
It’s the perfect encapsulation of who Lane has been his entire time in Philly. Tough. He was playing with an injury that would have most of us on bed rest. Yet not only did he play, he played at the highest level an OT can play at.
2) Reggie White- 1987
It is hard to match what Reggie White did back in 1987. He had 21 sacks. Which is a great number for someone who plays a full season. But 1987 was a strike-shortened season. 1 week was canceled completely, and 3 more featured replacement players. So by the end of the season, White had played just 12 games.
12 games. He got 21 sacks in 12 games. In a 16-game season, that would be 28 sacks. The record is 22.5 by Michael Strahan, and he did that in 16 games. TJ Watt recently tied that record, and he did so in 15 games. White had several fewer games and nearly matched what those 2 did. Oh, and he also played great run defense, forced 4 fumbles, and scored a 70-yard TD.
When I originally wrote this listicle before the playoffs, I put Reggie at 1. But after the Eagles won the Super Bowl, it fell to 2.
1) Saquon Barkley- 2024
The 2000-yard regular season was enough to make the case to put him at 1. When I wrote this listicle back in early January, I originally put him at 2 behind Reggie White. But his performance in the playoffs lifted it to 1. Yeah, he didn’t do much in the Super Bowl, but Saquon is the reason he got there.
2 big runs in the game vs the Rams. 3 TDS, including a long one on the first play of the game, vs the Commanders. He went on to break Terrel Davis’ record for rushing yards in a full season. He could have broken Eric Dickerson’s record had he played the final week, but he had bigger things on his mind.
Not only was it a legendary season, one of the best ever by a RB, but it also ended in a parade. For that reason, Saquon takes 1st place. Oh, and he also did this, which is one of the craziest things I have ever seen on a Football field.