Eagles coach Nick Sirianni set to rest Saquon Barkley in finale and end chance at NFL rushing record

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Saquon Barkley had a heart-to-heart talk with his dad that was more coated in heartbreak than hope over the Philadelphia Eagles running back's pursuit of the NFL single-season rushing record.

Barkley's stirring chase of Eric Dickerson was over — he will sit out the Eagles final regular-season game Sunday, denying the running back his chance at breaking the mark.

The news came with a tough call with his dad, Alibay.

“He definitely wanted me to play,” Barkley said Wednesday at his locker. “Selfishly for him, you’ve got to think about it ... our last name would have been attached to that. I see it from that side, too. At the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games. He’s the one that raised me to kind of be all about the team, too. He can have his little selfish moment, but he’ll get over it.”

Barkley insisted he recovered from the sting, too.

So will an offensive line that pushed for the star back to set the record, and even fans who wanted to say they were there Sunday at the Linc against the New York Giants and witness a little slice of NFL history.

Barkley will finish the season with 2,005 yards rushing, just 101 yards shy of breaking Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards set with the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.

The Eagles (13-3) clinched the NFC East and the No. 2 seed in the conference, leaving little to play for against the Giants.

That included NFL records.

Coach Nick Sirianni made the final call — after a pair of conversations with Barkley, players, coaches, general manager Howie Roseman — to give Barkley the week off and not risk potential injury to perhaps their most valuable player and only the ninth running back in NFL history to top 2,000 yards rushing in a season.

“May never get another opportunity like that again," Barkley said. "So, I'm down. But at the end of the day, I don't care for putting the team at risk. He's the head coach for a reason. He makes those decisions.”

Barkley should have plenty of company among the starting lineup sitting out Sunday before the Eagles host either Washington or Green Bay in an NFC wild-card playoff game.

Sirianni said he was set to rest the bulk of the starters — notably quarterback Jalen Hurts, who sat out Sunday’s rout of Dallas with the lingering effects of a concussion — to get them rested and healthy ahead of what the franchise hopes will be a deep run to the Super Bowl.

“I’m just happy I didn’t have to make that decision,” Barkley said. “Nick made it pretty easy on me and I’m truly at peace with it.”

The Eagles had their bye week in Week 5, and returned from a 2-2 start to win 10 straight games and seize control of the division. But 12 straight games — where Barkley added to his NFL-high 345 carries — also played a role in Sirianni giving the Barkley and the starters one week off before the Eagles open the playoffs.

With no guarantee of a Super Bowl, much less even one playoff win, some Eagles struck a melancholy tone inside the locker room that Barkley's run had been grounded.

“Everybody would like to have the record,” offensive tackle Lane Johnson said. “We'd also like to have the player for a playoff game, and win a playoff game with him.”

After he ran for 167 yards in Sunday’s win against Dallas, Barkley said he wanted the record, but he would do what was best for the Eagles, even if that meant sitting out the last game of the regular season.

“On Sunday, I probably didn't care too much for it,” Barkley said. “When I slept on it, it was like, it was an opportunity to implement my name in football history.”

Yes, Barkley can't catch Dickerson, but he bulldozed past LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook and Wilbert Montgomery for best season by a running back in Eagles history.

He set the Eagles record for yards rushing in a single season and set a season franchise record for scrimmage yards (2,283). McCoy set the mark of 2,146 yards in 2013.

The yards, wins and records never seemed to stop coming for Barkley and the Eagles.

Barkley ran for 147 yards against New Orleans in Week 3. He had 176 yards in a win in their first meeting against the Giants. Barkley ran for touchdowns of 70 and 72 yards against the Los Angeles Rams and finished the game with a career-high 255 rushing yards on 26 carries and two rushing TDs in November.

“If I had to go out there and get the record, I felt really good enough to do it, too,” Barkley said. “I made a joke to one of my boys the other night, my body don’t feel like I ran for 2,000 yards. That’s a good thing.”

Hurts was still in the NFL's concussion protocol on Wednesday and could not practice or play until he was cleared.

Kenny Pickett started for the Eagles last week and ran and threw for a touchdown before he left with injured ribs. Tanner McKee, the third-string QB, threw a pair of touchdown passes as he put the finishing touches on a rout of the Cowboys.

The Eagles only held a walkthrough Wednesday and Pickett was estimated on the injury report to have missed practice — meaning McKee is in line to start Sunday.

Barkley is set to wonder, what if?

The decision also ends that hand-wringing that Barkley would have set the record in an extra 17th game that Dickerson did not have in 1984.

In 1984, Dickerson topped 100 yards rushing 12 times to break O.J. Simpson’s 1973 record with Buffalo of 2,003 yards rushing in a single season.

Simpson set his record in 14 games before the NFL expanded to 16 in 1978. The NFL moved to 17 games in 2021.

“I didn’t sign here to break Eric Dickerson’s record,” Barkley said. “I came here to win a Super Bowl.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL

Dan Gelston, The Associated Press