The Philadelphia Eagles found themselves between a rock and a hard place entering the final week of the NFL season. Philadelphia locked itself into the number two seed in the NFC playoffs.
Normally this would be a great accomplishment, but it means that the team has nothing to play for in the regular season finale against the New York Giants. However, that doesn’t mean that individual players have nothing to play for.
Star running back Saquon Barkley is just a little over 100 yards shy of breaking the NFL single-season record for rushing yards in a season. Unfortunately, the Eagles have elected to sit Barkley in Sunday’s game, rather than give him the chance to break the record.
Barkley spoke about the decision with reporters, according to ESPN.
“[Head coach Nick Sirianni] asked me if I wanted to play, if I wanted to go for it,” Barkley said at his locker Wednesday. “I said on Sunday [that] I probably didn’t care too much for it. When I slept on it, it was an opportunity to implant my name in football history, and I may never get an opportunity like that again. 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, and whatever decision he wanted to make, I let him know if you let me play, I’m going to go out there and make sure I get it. And if I don’t, I am OK with that, too.
Sirianni explained his decision process.
“Obviously it’s a very special record that’s been standing for a very long time by a great player. It’s a team record that everybody’s involved in. You weigh all those things,” Sirianni said. “But at the end of the day, you just try to do what’s best for the team. When the bye was, how guys are feeling, the bumps and bruises we can take care of. We’ve put ourselves in a position to be in this situation. … It wasn’t the easiest decision to go through, but we have great people in this building and had a lot of input from a lot of people, players included.”
“It kind of would have been a full-circle moment, but at the end of the day it wasn’t in God’s plan,” Barkley said. “I’ve got bigger things in mind, and we get a chance to rest and get ready to roll for the playoffs.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Barkley looks in the playoffs coming off the extra rest.
