Saquon Barkley won’t get a chance to break the NFL single-season rushing record after all.
The Philadelphia Eagles running back won’t play in the team’s Week 18 game against the New York Giants, coach Nick Sirianni announced Wednesday. The Eagles are already locked into the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs.
Sirianni said other starters would also sit out the contest.
Barkley has 2,005 rushing yards on the season, leaving him 101 short of breaking the single-season record Eric Dickerson set in 1984. With 167 yards on a season-high 31 carries last week in a 41-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys last week, he became just the ninth running back in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 yards.
‘Obviously it’s a very special record that’s been standing for a very long time by a great player,’ Sirianni said Wednesday. ‘It’s a team record that everybody’s involved in. You weigh all those things. But at the end of the day, you just try to do what’s best for the team.’
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Sirianni was initially noncommittal after the win over the Cowboys on whether Barkley would play in the regular-season finale, saying he would consult Eagles brass and players before making a decision. Barkley said he would be content however the coach chose to proceed.
‘Whatever his decision is, I’m all for it,’ Barkley said. ‘If his mindset is, we’ll go out there and try it, I’ll go out there and try it. If his mindset is, let’s rest and get ready for this run, I’m all for that, too. … I came here to do something special. Breaking a record is special, but I want a banner up there. I think we all do.’
‘These people who say, ‘records are meant to be broken,’ you ain’t got no record,’ Dickerson told Bell. ‘You don’t have one. When you get those records, you want to hang on to them. No matter if it was in bowling and you had 30 strikes in a row, you don’t want nobody to break that.’
Saquon Barkley stats
Barkley has 2,005 rushing yards on 345 carries this season, which are both personal and NFL bests, along with 13 rushing touchdowns.
The seventh-year veteran also has 33 catches for 278 receiving yards. He also leads the league in yards from scrimmage with 2,283 and touches with 378.
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This story has been updated with new information.