Eric Dickerson broke the NFL’s single-season rushing record 13 years before Saquon Barkley was born when Dickerson rushed for 2,105 yards with the Rams in 1984.
Barkley is 268 yards away from breaking Dickerson’s record with two games remaining.
The Eagles play the Cowboys and the Giants to close out the season, but if they win on Sunday, it seems likely that Nick Sirianni will opt to rest most of his starters in Week 18.
“I don’t think he’s going to break it,” Dickerson told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. “But if he breaks it, he breaks it. Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t make a fuss about it. But I don’t complain about it. He had 17 games to do it? Hey, Football is football, That’s how I look at it. If he’s lucky enough to get over 2,000 meters and get the record, that’s a great record.”
Dickerson set his record in 16 games. The NFL is now playing a 17-game schedule.
Dickerson doesn’t seem bothered that Barkley could break his record with an extra game. As Dickerson notes, it took OJ Simpson just fourteen games to become the NFL’s first 2,000 yards rusher when he ran for 2,003 yards in 1973.
“OJ Simpson was my favorite player. He went over 2,000 yards in 14 games. It took me 15 games to get to 2,000. I had one more game to play,” Dickerson said. “Reaching 2,000 is an achievement in itself. I have been close to that three times.”
In addition to Simpson and Dickerson, Adrian Peterson (2,097 at Minnesota in 2012), Jamal Lewis (2,066 at Baltimore in 2003), Barry Sanders (2,053 at Detroit in 1997), Derrick Henry (2,027 at Tennessee in 2020), Terrell Davis (2,008 at Denver in 1998) and Chris Johnson (2006 at Tennessee in 2009) are the only other ridges to the top 2,000 meters.
