Eagles’ Saquon Barkley: Retirement could come ‘out of nowhere’

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is coming off a career year, complete with an NFL rushing title, a Super Bowl championship and even the cover of the “Madden 26” video game.
That said, Barkley raised a few eyebrows recently when he revealed his retirement plan is similar to that of Hall of Famer Barry Sanders.
“I’ll probably be one of those guys that it’ll be out of nowhere. I’ll probably just wake up one day, whether it’s next year or two years or four years, and just be like, ‘Yeah, it’s over,'” Barkley said on Chris Long’s Green Light podcast.
“… My favorite player of all time is Barry Sanders, so probably similar to that. Maybe one day, it’ll be out of nowhere — I’ll be balling and be like, yeah, call it quits.”
Barkley, 28, is three years younger than Sanders was when the Detroit Lions legend opted to retire on the eve of training camp in 1999. Sanders was coming off his 10th straight 1,000-yard season when he made the shocking announcement.
Barkley is the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year after he led the league with 345 carries for 2,005 yards while scoring 13 touchdowns in 16 regular-season games (all starts). He also caught 33 passes for 278 yards and two TDs.
He rushed 91 more times in four playoff games for 499 yards and five TDs, giving him a combined single-season record of 2,504 yards to pass Terrell Davis.
Barkley has rushed 1,546 times for 7,216 yards and 48 TDs and caught 321 passes for 2,378 yards and 14 scores in 90 career games (all starts) for the New York Giants (2018-23) and Eagles.
The Giants selected him second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Penn State.