Saquon Barkley opens up on chasing NFL rushing record – NBC Sports Philadelphia

On December 16, 2024By Littum

Some guys just don’t care about records. They’re not paying attention, they couldn’t tell you who they’re chasing, they just don’t want to be bothered.

Not Saquon.

Saquon Barkley loves studying the NFL and the history of the game, and has grown up in the Allentown-Bethlehem area since he was a child. He knew exactly how many rushing yards LeSean McCoy had when he set the Eagles record in 2013, and he knows exactly how many rushing yards Eric Dickerson had when he set the NFL record in 1984.

He doesn’t hide from it. He wants to break records.

“I feel like if you want to be great, you’ve got to be able to study the greats and learn from them,” Barkley said at his locker Thursday. “So I try to focus, especially in my position, on the history of the position and learning the position and watching those guys and seeing the things they were able to accomplish and as a competitor trying to go out there and get them.”

Barkley is up to 1,623 rushing yards with four regular season games remaining in his first season with the Eagles. Dickerson rushed for 2,105 yards in 16 games with the Rams in 1984, his second NFL season. So Barkley needs 483 yards — or 121 per game — to break Dickerson’s record.

Although the Eagles face the Steelers and their 4^th-ranked run defense on Sunday, their last three games are against the Commanders, Cowboys and Giants, who rank 28th^th30^th and 29^th in rushing yards allowed, each allowing between 137 and 142 yards per carry. match.

He could really do this.

“I know a lot about Eric Dickerson,” Barkley said. “I know he’s got the record. He’s (had it) for 40 years. Obviously, I’ve heard the talk. I know the number. I know what it takes to get it.

“Kind of messing around with it, with the emotions of how I feel about it, but the mindset is don’t be afraid of it, embrace it. It’s there. Challenge yourself to try to get it. But in the end In the end, the most important thing is to win football games.”

With a huge game in the next three, Barkley could give himself an opportunity to break Dickerson’s mark before the season finale against the Giants, his former team, which could allow Nick Sirianni to shut him down a week early if the Eagles are locked in their playoff seed. He had to average 161 yards against the Steelers, Commanders and Cowboys to get the record in 16 games.

If Barkley doesn’t have the record in the Cowboys game and the Eagles have nothing to play for, Sirianni will have a tough conversation about playing him against his former team and chasing the record or shutting him down to make sure he’s healthy. Will probably depend on how close he is to 2,105 and what Barkley wants to do.

It is important to note that the single-season record for rushing yards per game belongs to OJ Simpson, who averaged 143.1 yards with the Bills in 1973. That’s 2,003 yards in 14 games. Dickerson rushed for 2,105 in 16 games — that’s 131.6 yards per game — but Jim Brown in 1963 (133.1) and Walter Payton in 1977 (132.3) also had higher averages per game. match than Dickerson.

Barkley said he started studying the great running backs and their accomplishments as a kid, and he loves talking about NFL history and plans to do more of it when he retires.

“I used to grow up — you don’t really have that much time when you’re here — but I want to be on TV,” he said. “I want to do something similar to what (Michael) Strahan does. Half of my job is talking about football, half of it is talking about other things in life. That’s kind of where it comes from.”