It might be the Saquon Barkley Show, but don't forget about Kenny Gainwell

Saquon, Saquon, Saquon, Saquon, Saquon.

Yeah. But don’t forget about Kenny Gainwell either.

It’s easy to do. Saquon Barkley has the big contract, three 1,000-yard seasons and two Pro Bowls on his resume. He's the star in the Eagles' running back room. But new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s history says Gainwell will play a significant role this year as well.

“Hopefully so and I'm pretty sure Kellen will make sure that we get those great opportunities and once they come our way, we are going to take full advantage,” Gainwell said. 

“He's basically just giving us a greater opportunity to get everyone involved. He's doing a great job at that. I'm excited about it. I get a great opportunity. I'm just glad for him to be here.”

Gainwell has averaged 6.4 touches per game in his first three years with the Eagles, with a high of 7.1 last year. 

Among running backs who’ve started fewer than five games since 2021, he’s got the 4^th-most touches and 4^th-most scrimmage yards.

He’s actually got a higher yards-per-touch average (5.2) than Barkley (4.9).

Gainwell backed up Miles Sanders for two years and D’Andre Swift for one year but is one of only three running backs in the NFL with at least 400 scrimmage yards, 4.3 yards per carry and 20 catches in each of the last three seasons. The others are Christian McCaffrey and Aaron Jones.

It’s tough to tell exactly what his role will be, and we know Barkley will get the lion’s share of the workload. But we also know that Moore likes using multiple backs and receivers to give his guys enough rest and keep defenses off balance.

What will that look like? We’ll start to find out Friday.

“If the opportunity presents itself, I'll be ready,” Gainwell said. “I've always been ready. My mindset has always been laser-focused. I'm just going to continue to work on myself, work on my mentals, and continue to do everything I have to do. The small things, they’re most important. I'm going to do everything I have to do to make sure that when that time comes I'm ready.”

With Barkley, Gainwell now has his third different Pro Bowl running back teammate, and he said he’s learned something from each one of them.

“I take a lot from Saquon, his explosive ability,” he said. “He's bigger than those other guys. So just taking those forward leans and running through tackles, there's just things you can take from him and all of those guys. I'm happy I get the opportunity to be around those all-pro bowlers, all Pro Bowl guys.”

Gainwell had another very good training camp and had the ball in his hands a lot. Some of that was just Moore trying to monitor Barkey’s workload. But there’s also a real sense that the offensive coaches really love the change of pace that the 25-year-old Gainwell brings.

And if he looked more explosive than in the past there’s a reason for it.

“Just working on my quick-step explosiveness,” he said. “I'm going from basically one, two drive steps to longer strides. It's just something that I kind of worked on, and it's helped me. 

“I'm pretty sure everybody's like, ‘He’s a little bit more explosive this year.’ I think I've been explosive, but it's something that I had to understand about myself and continue to work on and get better at. Everything happens over time. We don't just learn one thing in one night. So that’s just something I worked on.”

And he’s got a fan in Barkley.

“Kenny is a lot stronger than I thought,” Barkley said. “I would say that. I kind of noticed that coming into the offseason and training him and working with him. And he's super smart.”

With Barkley, Gainwell and rookie Will Shipley, the Eagles have a potentially very good running back room with three versatile players with different skill sets.

It may be tough for Gainwell and certainly Shipley to make a huge impact, but Gainwell is hopeful. And ready.

“Will's working hard, I'm working hard, Saquon's working hard, every back in the running back room right now is working hard,” he said. “We're all picking each other's brains to make sure that we can come out strong and be the best on the field whenever we get the opportunity. It’s very competitive.”