DJ Wonnum says Saquon Barkley is only human, outlines Panthers' plans to stop him

Carolina's defenders know they have a tall task trying to bring down the NFL's 2024 rushing leader.

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 24: Running back Saquon Barkley #26 of the Philadelphia Eagles stands on the field after an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, at SoFi Stadium on November 24, 2024 in Inglewood, California. / (Photo by Brooke Sutton/Getty Images)

The Philadelphia Eagles are ridiculous favorites (12 points) for this coming weekend's matchup with the Carolina Panthers. It's true that the Eagles a far more-talented team overall than the Panthers right now, but the biggest reason why the line is so skewed is because the Eagles are particularly good where the Panthers are particularly bad.

That would be Philly's league-best rushing attack, which looks to go off against Carolina's league-worst run defense. It doesn't take a lot of analytics to predict that Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley is likely to have a really big day on the ground.

Nevertheless, the Panthers have to try to stop him. Here's what edge rusher DJ Wonnum had to say about that dynamic yesterday, per the team website.

DJ Wonnum on stopping Saquon Barkley

"Every hat to the ball... I mean, at the end of the day, he's human. So, I mean we don't look at him like no machine. We going to come, we going to hit him, we going to bring our feet, we're going to take him to the ground."

Wonnum is technically correct that Barkley is human, but that doesn't make containing him any easier. For the season Barkley leads the NFL with 1,499 rushing yards, which is 92 more than second-place Derrick Henry and over 500 more than any other player in the league this year.

It's not just Barkley's power and elusiveness that the Panthers have to contend with, either. While he's always been a potent running back Barkley is better than ever this year because for the first time in his career he's running behind a great offensive line. As a team the Eagles rank seventh in ESPN's run block win rate metric and Pro Football Focus has them ranked fifth in run blocking, which is probably too low.

That's the true challenge for the Panthers this week - not getting blown off the line of scrimmage by Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and company. It'll be particularly tough without superstar defensive tackle Derrick Brown in the lineup - he's been on injured reserve since Week 1, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Either the Panthers will use the daunting task of containing Barkley as an opportunity to turn things around and start defending the run like a proper NFL team, or they're going to get blown out.

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