How close is Saquon Barkley to Eric Dickerson’s rushing record after Week 15? Is he still on pace to break it?
After a 65-yard performance against the Steelers, is Barkley still on track to make NFL history?
Eric Dickerson’s all-time NFL rushing record is still in play for Saquon Barkley with three games left in his MVP-caliber season. Against the Steelers, Barkley put up one of his weaker performances this year, and had a brief injury scare in the first half. With that said, he’s still within striking distance.
But Dickerson isn’t quite rooting for Barkley to reach his career mark.
“I’ll tell you the truth. No, I don’t want my record broken. Of course I don’t,” Dickerson said in an interview on 94.1 WIP back on Dec. 6. “If he breaks it, he breaks it, and I’m not gonna lose sleep over it.”
How many yards did Saquon Barkley have against the Steelers?
Barkley put up 65 yards against the Steelers, in one of the Eagles’ most pass-heavy games of the season. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith combined for 19 catches for 219 of Jalen Hurts’ 290 yards, and two touchdowns. Barkley didn’t get as many snaps during the game, missing a drive in the second quarter in the medical tent.
How many rushing yards does Saquon Barkley have this season?
Following Sunday’s win against the Steelers, Barkley has 1,688 yards rushing this season. He is averaging 120.6 rushing yards per game, a pace that would put him at around 2,050 rushing yards for the season.
Barkley has already topped his career high of 1,312, which he posted in 2022 with the Giants. He’s also tied his career-best 11 rushing touchdowns, which he set during his rookie year in 2018.
Who holds the record for most rushing yards in a single season?
The current single-season rushing record belongs to Hall of Famer Dickerson, who rushed 2,105 yards for the Los Angeles Rams in a 16-game season in 1984. At his current pace, Barkley will fall short of missing out on the record by 55 yards.
During his 11-year career, Dickerson rushed for 13,259 yards, the ninth-most in NFL history. Former Cowboy Emmitt Smith holds the all-time career NFL rushing record with 18,355 yards in 15 seasons, all but the last two with the Dallas Cowboys.
“It’s one of those moments that you don’t really appreciate at the time,” former Rams guard Dennis Harrah, a teammate of Dickerson’s for more than four years, told Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski. “But as you look back on it, it’s really special. It was a great accomplishment. It’s almost like the Super Bowl.”
How many more rushing yards does Saquon Barkley need to break the record?
With three games left on the 17-game schedule, Barkley is 417 yards away from the record. He needs to average 139 yards per game remaining in order to break it.
Luckily for him, the Birds’ three remaining games are against teams with weak rushing defenses. Entering Week 15, the Cowboys ranked third-worst in the NFL, allowing 141.9 rushing yards per game. The Giants were fourth-worst, allowing 141.7 yards per game, and the Commanders fifth-worst, allowing 137 yards per game.
Barkley is also close to the NFL’s all-purpose yard record
In addition to the NFL’s single-season rushing record, Barkley has a chance to set a new NFL record for scrimmage yards in a season. Barkley had two catches for 9 yards on Sunday.
Barkley’s at 1,964 scrimmage yards (rushing and passing) through 14 games. With three more regular-season games to play, if he continues at this same pace (about 140 yards per game), he’ll finish with 2,385 yards, below Chris Johnson’s record of 2,509 in 2009 with Tennessee.