The Chosen Five: Saquon Barkley Crashes the Quarterback Invitational
NEW YORK, NY — For years, the NFL MVP trophy has felt like a closed-door meeting for quarterbacks only. But as the league officially announced the five finalists for the 2024-25 season, one name jumped off the screen and broke the traditional mold. **Saquon Barkley** didn’t just have a great year; he forced the voters to look beyond the passing yards. He stands alone as the only non-quarterback finalist, joined by a heavy-hitting quartet of signal-callers: **Josh Allen, Jared Goff, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes**.
straight buckets 🔥
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— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2026
A Renaissance for the Running Back
The drama of this year’s race is centered squarely on Barkley’s resurgence in Philadelphia. In a league that has spent a decade “devaluing” the running back position, Barkley spent 18 weeks proving that the right runner can still be the most valuable engine in an offense. He cleared **2,100 yards from scrimmage** and found the end zone 20 times, but his real value was in the “gravity” he created. Defenses were so terrified of his lateral burst that it opened up the entire passing game for the Eagles. He isn’t just a finalist; he’s a living argument that the “QB-only” era might be nearing its end.
Standing in his way are four quarterbacks with vastly different paths to this moment. **Josh Allen** acted as a one-man wrecking crew in Buffalo, accounting for **44 total touchdowns** while leading a team that many thought would take a step back. Then there is **Jared Goff**, the man who turned Detroit from a hard-luck story into a juggernaut. Goff finished with over **4,500 passing yards**, playing with a level of cold-blooded efficiency that made the Lions the most balanced threat in the NFC. Of course, you cannot have an MVP conversation without the heavyweights: **Lamar Jackson** and **Patrick Mahomes**, both of whom once again piloted their teams to the top of the AFC through sheer late-game magic.
Inside the Huddle
“You watch these five guys and you see five different ways to carry a franchise. But when you see Saquon doing what he’s doing at a position people said was dead? That’s not just a good season—that’s a statement to the entire league about what ‘value’ actually looks like.” — Longtime NFL Personnel Director
The Bottom Line & What’s Next
The winner will be crowned at the NFL Honors on February 6, but the debate is already splitting the football world in half. If the voters want to reward the “Best Quarterback,” **Lamar Jackson** likely secures his third trophy after a season of highlight-reel consistency. However, if the panel wants to honor the player who truly “carried” their roster, **Josh Allen** or **Saquon Barkley** will be the names called in New Orleans.
Expect the final tallies to be remarkably close. This wasn’t a year where one player ran away with the award by Thanksgiving. Each of these five men had signature moments in December that kept their teams in the hunt for a #1 seed. Watch the betting lines over the next ten days; if Barkley’s odds continue to shorten, we could be looking at the first running back MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012. The QB monopoly is under siege, and the result will tell us exactly how the NFL views greatness in 2025.
