The Philadelphia Eagles are having an excellent 2024 season. Philadelphia finished the regular season with a record of 14-3 and an NFC East division title. Now the Eagles are preparing for a Wild Card showdown with the Packers on Sunday. Part of that preparation involved resting RB Saquon Barkley during Week 18.
This was an unpopular move according to some Eagles fans because Barkley was close to breaking the NFL’s single-season rushing record.
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce weighed in on the topic during a recent episode of the New Heights podcast.
“Unless you get the record it’s just another great year,” Jason Kelce declared. “You get the record you’re the baddest dude on the planet ever to play the game. Regardless of what anybody says about 17 games or 16 games, you get the record than hey, I’ve got the all-time record brother.”
Travis Kelce disagreed, stating that all of those years with 2,000-yard rushers were memorable.
Jason Kelce did acknowledge that it was the smart move to sit Saquon ahead of the playoffs. However, he still vented some frustrations that he believes nobody will remember this season because Barkley did not break the NFL rushing record. As an example of his argument, Kelce declared that nobody really cares about other running backs that have broken the 2,000-yard mark.
“There’s a few guys that have broken 2,000 yards and you forget that they even, like Derrick Henry broke 2,000 yards,” Kelce stated. “I didn’t even remember Derrick Henry did it until we started talking about it this week.”
Kelce continued by saying that none of the recent 2,000-yard seasons were very notable.
For the record, Travis Kelce said that Jason is acting “crazy” and highlighted Chris Johnson’s 2,000-yard season as a big accomplishment.
“Nobody is saying it wasn’t an insane year,” Jason Kelce concluded. “But it’s not historic because he didn’t break the record.”
Eagles’ Saquon Barkley joined elite club of 2,000-yard rushers in 2024
Saquon Barkley may not have gotten a chance to break the NFL rushing record, but he still had a great season.
Barkley joins an elite club of running backs who have gone for over 2,000 rushing yards in a single season.
Eric Dickerson holds the NFL record with 2,105 yards in a season. Former Bills RB OJ Simpson was the first to break 2,000 yards, doing so during the 1973 season. Other running backs who broke 2,000 yards include:
- Adrian Peterson (2012) – 2,097 yards
- Jamal Lewis (2003) – 2,066 yards
- Barry Sanders (1997) – 2,053 yards
- Derrick Henry (2020) – 2,027 yards
- Terrell Davis (1998) – 2,008 yards
- Chris Johnson (2009) – 2,006 yards
- Saquon Barkley (2024) – 2,005 yards
Barkley has already proven he’s capable of putting up numbers like some of the best backs in NFL history.
This should give him some extra motivation to go break Eric Dickerson’s record during the 2025 season.
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