Doubt at your own risk, Eric Dickerson.
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is nipping at the heels of the all-time single-season rushing record — Dickerson’s 2,105 yards, secured with the Los Angeles Rams in 1984 — but the record-holder doesn’t think Barkley’s going to finish the job.
“I don’t think he’ll break it,” Dickerson said, per the Los Angeles Times. “But if he breaks it, he breaks it.”
The Hall of Famer continued: “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.”
Therein lies the asterisk — Barkley, who is 268 yards away from Dickerson’s 2,105, has a total of 17 contests to usurp the single-season rushing total. Dickerson had 16.
But in the words of the former Ram, football is football. He, too, was aided in his record-breaking campaign by the NFL’s steadily expanding schedule.
“O.J. Simpson was my favorite player,” Dickerson told the LA Times. “He went over 2,000 yards in 14 games. It took me 15 games to get to 2,000. I had one extra game to play, [too].”
Barkley — with his 1,838 rushing yards through the first 15 weeks of play — would need to average 134 yards from scrimmage in his final two contests to break Dickerson’s mark.
His Eagles are set to face off against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17, then Barkley’s former team, the New York Football Giants, in Week 18.
If the two-time pro bowler smashes Dickerson’s mark there, vs. the Giants on Jan. 5 … talk about poetry.
Barkley spent the first six seasons of his career bruising in blue for New York, but the franchise let him walk in free agency ahead of the 2024 season in embarrassingly public fashion.
In his first season donning Eagles green, Barkley has been, quite literally, unstoppable.
The running-back has already registered 526 more rushing yards than his previous career-high and BetMGM gives him the third best odds of winning the league’s MVP award, per The Athletic.
Barkley has topped 100 rushing yards in 10 of 15 games and reached the end zone on multiple occasions in six. He is just the third running back in the history of the league to register four touchdowns of 60 yards or longer in the same season.
With Jalen Hurts still in concussion protocol and set to be sidelined for the Eagles’ Week 17 matchup against the Cowboys, it’s plausible that Dallas stacks the box and prioritizes defending against the run.
And yet, odds are it won’t matter who is under center. Barkley booms.
