After much speculation, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni made his decision on how he will handle the starters, including Saquon Barkley, who is 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s record for most rushing yards in a season.
At this point, Philadelphia(13-3), who clinched the NFC East title after beating the Cowboys last Sunday, is locked into the No. 2 seed in the NFC, so Sunday’s game against Barkley’s former team, the Giants, at Lincoln Financial Field is meaningless.
“Yeah, we’re going to rest some guys,” Sirianni said on Wednesday. “We’re locked into that No. 2 seed, so we’re going to rest some guys. There are going to be some guys that are resting. There are going to be some guys that are in reserve roles. You can’t obviously rest everybody with the roster. Yeah, that’s our plan moving in here forward.”
Sirianni was specifically asked about allowing Barkley to play on Sunday so that he could chase the record, but Sirianni believes he has to do what’s best for the team.
“It’s a very special record that’s been standing for a very long time by a great player,” Sirianni said. “It’s a team record that everybody is involved in, so you weigh in all those things. But at the end of the day, you just try to do what’s best for the team. Again, 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 able to be in this situation. And our goals are to have success and to play good the next game we play. Not only New York, but whoever we play after that. We think this plays into that.
“It’s not easy. 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 different people, players included.
“[Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie and I discussed a bunch. Position coaches and coordinators and I discussed a bunch. I discussed with players. We have just selfless guys that want to do what’s best for the football team. And getting some guys some rest who have been grinding for the past, what did you say, 12 weeks, we felt that was in the best interest of the team.”
Barkley wanted to go for the record, and some of his teammates wanted him to go after it, but Barkley said he was glad Sirianni made the decision instead of him.
“I wanted to do it, but once I found out that we’re not, it kind of made it easier for me,” he said. “Because it’s not my decision, it was coach’s decision. I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision because, say, you go out there for selfish reasons, and something negative happens, and I’m the one that’s out there trying to get the offensive line to go play and beat the record for me, that’s crazy. I’m just happy I didn’t have to make that decision. Nick made it pretty easy on me, and I’m truly at peace with it.”
Records are great, but it would be too risky for the Eagles to trot Barkley and the starting offensive line on the field. Too much could go wrong. In addition, the 27-year-old Barkley has a career-high 345 carries, and at the end of the day, if the Eagles want to win a Super Bowl, Barkley needs to put together four solid games.
Plus, Philadelphia had their bye week in Week 5, so getting the opportunity to rest is important and valuable.
In the end, this move was bigger than Barkley; it’s about the team.
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