Eagles to sit Saquon Barkley in Week 18 amid chase of rushing yards record
from Andrew Wright, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
Read about Barkley at the YardBarker…
Eric Dickerson can breathe a sigh of relief for another season. His single-season rushing record will remain intact.
(How many of you remember Eric Dickerson and Craig James when they were together back in college at SMU, and they called the SMU Mustangs’ running back duo, “The Pony Express”?)
The Philadelphia Eagles have decided to rest some of their starters on Sunday against the Giants, and one of those starters will be running back Saquon Barkley.
Barkley is having a historic season in his first year with the Eagles and has pulled within close range of Dickerson’s rushing record.
With the decision made for Barkley to rest on Sunday, he will finish the season with 2,005 rushing yards, just 101 yards shy of breaking Dickerson’s record.
Barkley breaking the all-time record against his former team that didn’t want to pay him in the offseason would have been the perfect way to do it, but Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni has made the decision to rest Saquon and several other starters.
When asked about his opinion and thoughts on breaking the record, Barkley has made it known that he has bigger goals in mind.
Sirianni said there were several factors that went into the decision to rest the starters. Factors such as Philadelphia having its bye in Week 5, meaning it has played a game in 12 consecutive weeks.
Barkley does have a history of injuries in his career, so that is also something that was taken into account by Sirianni.
No matter the result of Sunday’s game against the Giants, Philadelphia will remain the No. 2 seed and host either the Commanders or Packers in the first round of the playoffs.
++++++++++Barkley on not getting the chance to break the record…from CBSSports.com/CLICK HERE
PHILADELPHIA — Saquon Barkley has said he wasn’t scared of making history. Chasing Eric Dickerson’s record was something he wanted to pursue, and something his teammates wanted to help him achieve.
Barkley let the decision come down to the Eagles. They decided to rest him for the Week 18 finale against the New York Giants, as Barkley will end his season with 2,005 yards — 101 shy of breaking Dickerson’s 40-year old record.
“When I slept on it, I was like this is an opportunity to implement my name in football history,” Barkley said. “You may never get an opportunity like that again, so I’m down. But I don’t care (about it) if I’m putting the team at risk. He’s the head coach for the reason. He makes the decisions and whatever decision he wanted to make.
“If he wanted me to play, I’m gonna go out there and make sure I’d get it. If we don’t, I was okay with that too.”
Barkley’s goal was to get 2,000 yards when he knew he was in striking distance, specifically in 16 games. He was content with becoming the ninth player in NFL history to reach that milestone. After seeing how badly his teammates wanted him to get that record, Barkley’s mindset changed.
“I think it’s pretty cool that as bad as I wanted the record, the linemen wanted it too,” Barkley said. “My name would be the one in there, in the history books, they would have been the ones that would have done it for me.”
Barkley passed on the opportunity to set the single-season rushing record against the Giants, which was in his mind. This wasn’t an opportunity to rub it in to his former team.
“It would have been special to do it against the Giants, but not for the reasons how you guys would probably perceive it to be,” Barkley said. “At the end of the day, I got nothing but love and respect for those guys over there. There’s a lot of trainers, coaches, and strength guys that helped me out with my ACL, helped me out with my injuries, and I wouldn’t be able to be the player I am today without those guys over there too. So it would have kinda been like a full circle moment.
“At the end of the day, it’s not in God’s plan. He had bigger things in mind. We have a chance to rest and get ready to roll for the playoffs.”