NFL MVP candidate on Jalen Hurts: ‘He has the it factor to win football games’

At his current pace, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley would break Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record by 18 yards.

In his first season with Philadelphia, Barkley leads the NFL with 1,499 rushing yards, putting him in range with five regular-season games to play of Dickerson’s 1984 record of 2,105 rushing yards for the Los Angeles Rams.

That production, which also includes 13 touchdowns and a league-leading 1,766 yards from scrimmage, has landed Barkley in the mix to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award for the 2024 season. A non-quarterback hasn’t won the award since Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson earned the honor in 2012.

While BetMGM has Barkley with the second-shortest odds to win the NFL MVP Award, behind Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, it has the odds on Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts winning the honor at 22 times longer than Barkley’s.

RELATED: JALEN HURTS DESERVES TO BE IN THE MVP CONVERSATION

Barkley thinks that’s out of whack for a quarterback on an eight-game winning streak.

“I know I’m getting MVP chants,” Barkley said on Thursday, “but you can make an argument he’s in the same boat, especially how it’s really much a quarterback award. The guys who I’m being mentioned with, I think he should be right up there with them. One of the best teams and his stats match it, too.”

Aside from stats, Barkley said Hurts has something that can’t be measured by numbers.

“He’s a very smart player,” Barkley said. “I don’t think we give him a lot of credit for that — we do, but from an outside perspective. He’s a really smart player. He’s been doing a really good job taking care of the ball and putting us in position to win football games.

“I was talking about it the other day with my family. I don’t really know how to explain it, but he has ‘it’ – like the it factor to win football games. He has that. And then, like, how do you explain it? I don’t really know how you explain it. You just know it when you see it. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who’s going to have a fumbled snap on the 1-yard line and still find a way to score a touchdown.

“Like ‘it’ — he has that to him throughout his whole career here. Go back to when he came in at Alabama, the success he had at Oklahoma. He’s just got that, and you can’t coach that. It’s hard to find, and I’m happy that I’m a part of his team.”

Barkley and Hurts will seek to keep the Eagles’ winning streak going against the Carolina Panthers at noon CST Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Yielding an average of 166.8 rushing yards per game, the Panthers have the worst rushing defense in the NFL. Over their final five regular-season games, the Eagles will face four of the six worst rushing defenses in the league, with the Panthers at No. 32, the Dallas Cowboys at No. 31, the New York Giants at No. 29 and the Washington Commanders at No. 27. Philadelphia’s other remaining opponent, the Pittsburgh Steelers, rank fourth in the NFL in rushing defense.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.