Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley became only the ninth player in NFL history to hit 2,000 rushing yards in a season in his team’s 41-7 Week 17 victory against the Dallas Cowboys.
With one game to go in the regular season, Barkley is only 101 yards away from breaking the single season record of 2,105 rushing yards set by Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson in 1984 although it remains to be seen how much he will feature in the season finale against his former team the New York Giants.
Barkley broke the 2,000 yard barrier on a 23 yard run in the fourth quarter and he has amassed 2,005 rushing yards overall this year after posting 167 yards from 31 carries against Dallas.
The 2018 number two overall pick has enjoyed the best statistical year of his career playing behind Philadelphia’s offensive line, with this game marking the 11th time this campaign Barkley has run for at least 100 yards.
The MVP candidate has recorded career high averages of 125.3 rushing yards per game and 5.8 yards per run, whilst obliterating his previous career high rushing total for a season of 1,312 yards from 2022.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe NFL hasn’t seen a player run for 2,000 yards in a season since Derrick Henry finished with 2,027 rushing yards for the Tennessee Titans in 2020.
It was however Minnesota Vikings great Adrian Peterson who came closest to surpassing Dickerson’s record when he ran for 2,097 yards during his 2012 MVP campaign.
Stats sourced from Yahoo Sports, NFL.com, Bleacher Report, ESPN