Eagles' Barkley Leaves Rams Game With Hamstring Injury
Saquon Barkley ran six yards early in the first quarter, roughly three minutes into the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against the Los Angeles Rams, and went out of bounds. He pulled up limping, favoring his right hamstring. He jumped in pain and bent to the ground near the Rams sideline. Before the injury stopped him he had two carries for eight yards.
Barkley, in his ninth NFL season and his third with Philadelphia, had signed with the Eagles after six years as the second overall pick in the 2018 draft and that year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year. At Penn State he had set school records for all-purpose yards and rushing touchdowns. In his first season in Philadelphia he rushed for more than 2,000 yards, helped the club win Super Bowl LIX, and was named the Associated Press NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
On this Sunday the run ended at the sideline. He grabbed the right hamstring as he hobbled clear of the play. Trainers walked him to the blue medical tent. He was evaluated there for several minutes, then continued on toward the locker room.
The drive had followed an Andrew Mukuba interception that gave Philadelphia the ball in Rams territory. Shortly after Barkley left the field the Eagles led 3-0 and finished the possession with a 29-yard Jake Elliott field goal. The club first listed him questionable to return with a hamstring injury. In the second quarter, with Philadelphia ahead 13-3, they downgraded him to out. His day was done.
He had entered Sunday with 174 yards on 34 carries through three weeks and no touchdowns. A stinger had already taken him out of part of the Week 2 win over Tennessee, though he returned for the second half that day. This time the hamstring ended his afternoon for good. What left the field with him was the center of Philadelphia’s early-season ground game.
Tank Bigsby entered the backfield immediately. On his first carry he gained seven yards and converted a first down. In September 2025 the Eagles had sent fifth- and sixth-round picks in the 2026 draft to the Jacksonville Jaguars and received Bigsby, who had rushed for 766 yards and seven touchdowns with Jacksonville in 2024. In 2025, his first season with the Eagles, he rushed for 344 yards and two touchdowns on 58 carries, averaging 5.9 yards per attempt in a smaller role behind Barkley. By the next August he had an offseason inside the system behind him and was in training camp when he spoke with the team’s Dave Spadaro.
“You know, whatever I got to do to help the team win, I step up and do my role,” Bigsby said on August 8.
The line had been camp talk then. It now described the afternoon. The remaining backfield snaps belonged to Bigsby and Will Shipley, and the offense around them was already operating without several of the starters who usually filled it. DeVonta Smith was already out with a hamstring injury. Marquise Brown sat with an ankle injury. Dallas Goedert and Fred Johnson were both sidelined by knee injuries, and Lane Johnson was inactive for personal reasons. The list ran further: linebacker Zack Baun with a concussion, left guard Landon Dickerson, safety Marcus Epps. Philadelphia had entered Sunday without six starters. Barkley’s exit removed one more.
The Eagles elevated tight ends Zach Ertz and Josiah Deguara from the practice squad. Ertz had one catch for nine yards against Chicago. Deguara was set for his Eagles debut. Dontayvion Wicks entered the week with nine receptions for 179 yards and a touchdown, suddenly among the primary options left for Jalen Hurts.
“It’s next man up,” Wicks said in the Friday injury report. “We’re going to be ready.”
Hurts had to move the ball with that cast—the receivers thinned without Smith and Brown, the tight ends without Goedert, the line short Johnson, the backfield already down to Bigsby and Shipley. The Eagles’ announcement concerned only the rest of the Rams game. It supplied no timetable for Barkley’s return beyond Sunday and offered nothing on the severity of the hamstring injury. Whether it would cost him additional time after this contest remained unsettled.
The coaches had not set beforehand how the carries and the passing-down snaps would be divided between Bigsby and Shipley. Neither man was assumed to inherit every part of the role. They took the work that remained. Barkley was already inside the locker room. The two remaining backs were still on the field.
