ESPN makes a good point amid the Saquon Barkley debate
Eric Dickerson had one fewer game than Saquon Barkley would, but the number of carries tells a story, too.
Will Saquon Barkley start on Sunday? If you’re not already sick of hearing that question, you probably will be soon.
From Philly sports talkers on 94.1 WIP and 97.5 The Fanatic to former players turned pundits on TV and YouTube, just about everyone has an opinion whether the Eagles should play Barkley in a meaningless game against the New York Giants, his former team. That includes my colleague Marcus Hayes, who is a very firm “no” on wanting to see Barkley break Eric Dickerson’s 40-year-old single-season rushing record Sunday.
“The NFL season is about winning enough games to reach the playoffs, then winning playoff games. Records are supposed to be coincidental,” Hayes wrote. “This one would be contrived.”
ESPN has also entered the fray, with Stephen A. Smith and others arguing loudly in favor of letting Barkley try to top Dickerson’s record, even as NFL insider Adam Schefter threw cold water on the idea.
“I fully expect them not to go for the record,” Schefter said. “I would be floored if Saquon Barkley is on the field this weekend. Floored. He’s not going to be out there.”
Amid the debate, Get Up host Mike Greenberg casually tossed in a nugget that hasn’t been mentioned much. A lot has been made of the fact Dickerson amassed his 2,105 yards in one fewer game than Barkley would have to top his record. But not a lot of attention has been paid to the fact Barkley would likely break the record with fewer attempts if given the opportunity to take the field.
“Barkley’s going to need an extra game to do it, we know that,” Greenberg said on Monday’s show, “but he would also likely do it in fewer carries than Dickerson.”
Barkley sits at 2,005 rushing yards on 345 carries, an average of about 5.8 yards per attempt. By comparison, Dickerson needed 34 more carries to set his mark — an average of about 5.6 yards per attempt. If Barkley were to play and hit his current average, he would only need 18 carries to top Dickerson.
Of the nine running backs in NFL history who have surpassed 2,000 yards, Barkley has fewer carries than all but two — O.J. Simpson in 1973 (332 attempts) and Barry Sanders in 1997 (335 attempts).
In 1998, it took Hall of Famer Terrell Davis 392 attempts to rush for about the same yards as Barkley, an effort that won the former Denver Broncos back the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award.
Davis wasn’t the only 2,000-yard rusher to receive the MVP award. Simpson got it in 1973, Barry Sanders received the award in 1997 (along with Brett Favre), and Adrian Peterson earned it in 2012.
But if you think that makes Barkley’s MVP case stronger, keep in mind Dickerson didn’t receive the award in 1984 when he set the record of 2,105 yards. Instead, it went to Dan Marino for setting single-season records for passing yards (5,084 yards) and touchdown passes (48) that stood for more than 30 years.
And if you don’t know who broke Marino’s record, maybe Barkley topping Dickerson isn’t that important after all.