Saquon Barkley breaks Eagles' single-season rushing record

Saquon Barkley breaks Eagles’ single-season rushing record

Posted by author December 8, 2024 Sports

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Saquon Barkley moved past LeSean McCoy on Sunday and now owns the Eagles’ franchise record for single-season rushing yards.

And he did it in 13 games.

Coming into today, Barkley needed 109 rushing yards to surpass Shady’s record and he did it in the fourth quarter against the Panthers.

Barkley knew he was approaching the record.

“I’m well aware of it,” Barkley said this week. “That’s something once I got here, I looked up the history of the Eagles running backs. I wasn’t familiar with Wilbert Montgomery. I wasn’t familiar with him so I even got to do a dive on him and got to learn about him and (Brian) Westbrook and Shady. That’s your goal. You want to come in here and leave a legacy on a place, on a franchise.

“I had the same mindset when I was in New York. Sadly that came up short. I’m aware of that but that’s not like a driving factor of it. The driving factor is to win football games and put ourselves in position to make a run and go win it all. I am aware of the things I can accomplish. But the way I accomplish that is by sticking to the script.”

Saquon Barkley in 2024: 1,615 and counting
LeSean McCoy in 2013: 1,607
Wilbert Montgomery in 1979: 1,512

Barkley, 27, has now gone over 100 yards in 9 of 13 games this season and has done it in four straight.

This week, McCoy told NBC Sports Philadelphia that he was rooting for Barkley to break his record.

“Yeah, man, records are meant to be broken,” McCoy said to NBC Sports Philadelphia this week. “And it’s a tribute to the respect we have for each other. I love competitors, man. I love what he’s doing for my team.

“The cool thing is when he broke my single-game rushing record, I was in the building, I was with Mr. (Jeffrey) Lurie watching the game. That was kind of cool. If you seen the mic’d up, he said, ‘We broke the record, we broke Shady’s record.’ We’re competing. I love people that push the position forward so I’m all for it.”