Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has an abundance of NFL fans rooting for him to break Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record.
Just don’t count Dickerson among them.
‘I don’t think he’ll break it. But if he breaks it, he breaks it,’ the former Los Angeles Ram said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published Thursday. ‘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. That’s the way I look at it. If he’s fortunate to get over 2,000 yards and get the record, it’s a great record to have.’
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Barkley is up to 1,838 rushing yards through 15 games this season. He needs 268 yards in the Eagles’ final two games of the season – against the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants – to break Dickerson’s single-season mark of 2,105, which he set in 1984.
The Philadelphia running back’s stellar season already ranks 19th all-time in single-season rushing yards, one spot ahead of Dickerson’s league-leading tally of 1,821 in 1986. Barkley is currently on pace for 2,083 rushing yards, which would fall behind both Dickerson’s 1984 record total and the next-highest mark: Adrian Peterson’s 2,097-yard season in 2012.
But Barkley could help his case with a strong outing in Week 17 against the Cowboys. The Eagles have already ruled out quarterback Jalen Hurts, which could mean a heavier workload for the star tailback.
As fortune would have it, if Barkley stays within reach after the first divisional matchup, he could have a chance to break Dickerson’s record against the Giants, his former team.
‘How ironic would it be for him to break the record on them, the team that let him go,’ Dickerson said in the aforementioned interview. ‘A true slap in the face.’