Saquon Barkley injury: status, history and who gets his targets if he is out

Philadelphia Eagles · Running back · status this week: QUESTIONABLE (ESPN)

Checked Oct 21, 2026.

Over his 8 full seasons on record, Saquon Barkley played 106 of 133 regular-season games (80%), and 4 of 6 so far in 2026. Season by season.

No absence modeled for week 7. He is projected to play in week 7, and this week’s absence model covers only each room’s top two running backs by usage with at least 0.8 projected catches. He is not one of them this week, so there is no “if he sits” to show. This page showed who gained while his absence was modeled earlier this season; that table returns whenever the model covers him again. His status and injury history below are current.

Injury history

Over his 8 full seasons on record, Saquon Barkley played 106 of 133 regular-season games (80%), and 4 of 6 so far in 2026.

Season	Team	Played	Missed	Listed out	Questionable	Injuries listed
2026	PHI	4 of 6	2	2	0	Hamstring
2025	PHI	16 of 17	1	0	0	—
2024	PHI	16 of 17	1	0	0	Not Injury Related - Coach'S Decision
2023	NYG	14 of 17	3	1	2	Ankle
2022	NYG	16 of 17	1	0	1	Neck
2021	NYG	13 of 17	4	4	4	Ankle, Knee
2020	NYG	2 of 16	14	0	0	—
2019	NYG	13 of 16	3	3	0	Ankle
2018	NYG	16 of 16	0	0	0	—

Regular season only. Games played counts games with at least one offensive snap; designations are from the official weekly injury report, which does not list players on injured reserve, so a long absence shows as missed games rather than as weeks listed out.

What the data says happens

Measured across every regular-season game from 2018 onward, each beneficiary compared against his own trailing four-game form and net of what the same players do in weeks the room’s number one actually plays.

When a team’s number-one running back does not play, what each position group gains:

Room	Receptions gained	n	t
Receivers	+0.112	2,094	2.36
Tight ends	+0.103	1,258	2.16
Backs	+0.610	1,042	11.17

The room total is predictable. Which player takes it is not. Every candidate predictor of who gains — pecking order, snap share, route depth, trailing targets — correlates at roughly r = 0.02. In any single week one player usually takes about 60% of what was vacated; it is simply not predictably the same one.

Saquon Barkley’s full stats and usageSnap share, target share, game log and this week’s projection

Cascade effects 2018–2026, paired within player, net of control · projections as-of-week with no lookahead · 2026 week 7