As the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New York Giants this Sunday in a Week 18 contest, the talk has been around running back Saquon Barkley breaking Eric Dickerson's record for all-time rushing yards in a season. However, the Eagles will be sitting Barkley for the regular season finale to prepare for the postseason even though he is 101 rushing yards shy of the record, but even this year's rushing title isn't safe.
Barkley would be the one to say that Henry can achieve the title as while the former leads the league with 2,005, the latter has 1,783 which is 222 yards away. Obviously, it would take an impeccable game, but Barkley is not ruling it out when he spoke to the media according to NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“I gotta be careful what I say because Derrick (Henry) can still get that, you know what I mean?” Barkley said. “He’s a special player and you can’t count him out of anything.”
“Derrick Henry could do it,” Barkley continued.
Barkley became the ninth player to reach 2,000 rushing yards in a single season with the eighth star being Henry as both share major similarities in their careers like how 2024 was the year they took their talents to new teams and are doing great. Henry apparently spoke to Barkley about possibly breaking Dickerson's record, but when told he was sitting, the Eagles star said he could hit 2,000 yards once again.
“I’m not gonna lie, I knew that number,” Barkley said. “I talked to him today. He was talking to me to see if I was going to get [the record]. Obviously, the news came out that I’m sitting. I told him you could do something special too. Be the first one to do it twice. You never know.”
Eagles' Saquon Barkley on resting in Week 18
It was a controversial decision when Philadelphia decided to sit Barkley for the Week 18 contest, but from the team's perspective, the game Sunday is relatively meaningless, and risking the health of a major offensive weapon for the playoffs isn't worth it. People would debate that the team is taking away what could be a crucial piece of Barkley's legacy, both sides which Barkley contemplated, but said the ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl.
“I mean, he asked me if I wanted to play, if I wanted to go for it,” Barkley said via ESPN. “I said, on Sunday, no, I probably didn't care too much for it, and then I slept on it and an opportunity to put my name in football history, I may never get another opportunity like that again, so I'm down at the end of the day.”
“I'm down, but like, I don't care for putting the team at risk,” Barkley continued. “He's the head coach for the reason. He makes his decisions, and whatever decision he wanted to make I let him know if you want me to play, I'm gonna go out there and make sure I get it, if I don't, I'm okay with that too… That's what I tell my family: We didn't come here, I didn't sign here, to break Eric Dickerson's record. We came here to win the Super Bowl.”
Philadelphia is 13-3 which put them first in the division before their Week 18 game against the Giants.
