PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Saquon Barkley normally would have tossed his game-used cleats to the kid who asked for the pair as the star Philadelphia Eagles running back ran off the field and back to the locker room.
Sorry, kid. Not today.
Barkley kept his mucked-up cleats for good reason — he became the ninth running back in NFL history to top 2,000 yards rushing in a season, reaching the milestone with a 23-yard run in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 41-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
That rush gave Barkley 2,005 yards with one game left and stuck him exactly 100 yards from Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105, set in 1984 for the Los Angeles Rams. Barkley left the game after the run that got him past 2,000, finishing with 167 yards on 31 carries.
“We definitely knew what the number was to at least get 2,000,” Barkley said. “We weren’t leaving this field without at least accomplishing that. That’s not the words from me, that’s the words from the guys up front.”
Whether Dickerson likes it or not — and the Hall of Famer made clear last week he does not — Barkley is coming for the record next Sunday against the New York Giants.
Well, maybe.
The Eagles have clinched the NFC East and least the No. 2 seed in the conference, making that game mostly meaningless. Coach Nick Sirianni could opt to rest Barkley to protect him from injury ahead of the playoffs.
“Whatever his decision is, I’m all for it,” Barkley said. “If his mindset is, go out and try it, we’ll go out and try it. If his mindset is, let’s rest and get ready for this run, I’ll all for it, too.”
Sirianni simply said, “we’ll see.”
His backward hat askew, Barkley laughed when asked if he wanted to break the record in a delicious twist against his old team.
“I’m not overly trying to go get it,” Barkley said. “I’m not scared to. I would love to. But at the end of the day, we’ve got bigger things we’re focusing on.”
Barkley gets a shot at the record thanks to a 17th game of the season that Dickerson and the NFL did not have in 1984.
Derrick Henry was the last running back to exceed 2,000 yards. He had 2,027 for the Tennessee Titans in 2020. Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson ran for 2,097 yards in 2012, the second most in an NFL season.
Barkley, who left the Giants to sign a three-year deal with the Eagles for $26 million guaranteed, also set the NFL mark Sunday for most yards rushing in a player’s first season with a new team.
He ran for 176 yards and a touchdown in his first career game against the Giants.
“I didn’t come here or sign here just to rush for 2,000 (yards) and break a record,” Barkley said. “I’m here to do something special.”
Barkley was drafted out of Penn State with the No. 2 overall pick in 2018. He was an instant success with New York and ran for 1,307 yards his rookie season. Barkley ran for 5,211 yards and 35 touchdowns and had 288 receptions for 2,100 yards and 12 TDs in six years with the Giants.
He hit free agency after the Giants elected not to put a franchise tag on him.
“I was in the dark,” Barkley said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know where you’re going to be. Everything is kind of up in the air.”
His mission is clear — win a Super Bowl and maybe take down Dickerson.
Sporting his trademark goggles and Jheri curl, Dickerson had seven straight 1,000-yard seasons in the 1980s, and the Hall of Famer is widely considered one of the best running backs ever.
Dickerson finished with 13,259 yards, the ninth most in NFL history. Emmitt Smith holds the career record with 18,355 yards.
“I don’t think he’ll break it. But if he breaks it, he breaks it,” Dickerson told the Los Angeles Times. “Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t pull no punches on that. But I’m not whining about it. He had 17 games to do it? Hey, football is football.”
In 1984, Dickerson topped 100 yards rushing 12 times to break O.J. Simpson’s 1973 record of 2,003 yards rushing in a season.
Simpson set his record in 14 games for the Buffalo Bills before the NFL expanded to 16 in 1978. The NFL moved to 17 games in 2021.
“The way football is right now, it’s kind of hard to rush for 2,000 yards in 14 games,” Barkley said. “So, whether it’s 16, whether it’s 17, it’s a feat that you can never take away from what I was able to do with the O-line. And only eight other players did it, so it’s a special moment.”
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