Despite a boffo rookie season with the New York Giants in 2019, Philadelphia Eagles superstar running back Saquon Barkley missed four games with a high ankle sprain. His second season as a professional ended with the six-foot, 233-pound running back being carted off the field. The diagnosis was he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament. That ended his season after only two games and only 25 rushing attempts.
In 2021, he missed four games after suffering the fourth ankle injury of his career. Then, he sat out three more games last year. He also battled similar sprains in two of his seasons at the collegiate level while playing at Penn State with the Nittany Lions.
Fast forward to the present. The fear of injury is again at the forefront of the conversation as he and head coach Nick Sirianni must determine whether to play him on Sunday against the New York Giants.
Much is at stake as the Eagles make one of the most important decisions they have made all season.
Perhaps you have heard? He's chasing Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. If anything tragic were to occur, an unnecessary injury to Barkley would cripple the Eagles' Super Bowl aspirations.
Make no mistake about it. Barkley has shown fans everywhere that he is the best at his position and in top physical shape this season. He seems obsessed with putting the injury concerns in his rearview mirror. During Philly's win over the Dallas Cowboys, he eclipsed 2,000 yards rushing, making him the ninth player in NFL history to do so.
He also eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the 11th time this season. There's one more thing we've been monitoring though. He has carried the ball 345 times and racked up 378 touches.
That's far above his previous career highs with the Giants. He tallied 295 rushing attempts in 2022 and stacked 352 touches in 2018 and 2022.
“I work really hard in the offseason,” Barkley recently told reporters. “As the game goes on, guys should be getting stronger. I should be able to impose my will on the defense. I’ve been training like that for a long time.”
The Giants let him walk during the offseason. Many saw that as disrespect, and whether he admits it or not, we believe he intends to show his former team’s leadership and the rest of the league that Big Blue made a terrible mistake.
What do we make of the risks and the asterisk everyone wants to place beside Saquon Barkley's potential record?
Claiming the NFL's single-season rushing record vs. his former team would be a storybook finish to the regular season. It's also a nice poke in the eye for his former team and an Eagles rival.
But, is his run at history worth the risk of being injured and damaging the Eagles' chances at a Super Bowl?
Barkley needs 101 yards to eclipse Dickerson’s current record (2,105). That has stood for 40 years, Some say an asterisk should be attached to the record if he's successful because Dickerson broke the record in 15 games (and added to his mark during a 16th week of action). Barkley, on the other hand, would have taken 17 games to set the new standard.
To that, we say this. How come no one ever discusses Dickerson needing an extra game to pass O.J. Simpson in the record books? We could argue his current standard should carry an asterisk too because O.J. set a record playing in 14 games.
Also, if we're being technical, Dickerson carried the rock 379 times in 1984, and Saquon has, again, stacked 345 carries this season. So, arguments can be made that Barkley can break Eric's record by carrying the ball fewer times,
Here's something else of note. Simpson averaged 143 rushing yards per game in 1973. Dickerson averaged 131 yards per contest. Barkley would have averaged just under 124 yards per game if he ended his season having rushed for 2,106 yards.
So, what decision will the Eagles make?
Barkley said he will leave the decision on whether to play Sunday in the hands of Nick Sirianni. "Whatever his decision is, I'm all for it," Barkley told reporters. "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.”
