October 22, 2024
Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images
Saquon Barkley ran for 176 yards and a touchdown against the Giants during Week 7's 28-3 Eagles win last Sunday. He was 13 yards short of matching his career high.
In his New York homecoming, Saquon Barkley torched the Giants for a touchdown and 176 rushing yards to have the Eagles winning 28-3.
But by the fourth quarter, he was just 13 yards away from matching his career high – 189 rushing yards set in 2019 – and still had plenty of time to reach and then break it.
Head coach Nick Sirianni said postgame that he briefed his running back on the milestone opportunity and offered him the decision to go back in.
Barkley passed to let the reserves play instead, Sirianni said, and on Monday afternoon, the Eagles released the NFL Films footage of that conversation on the sideline.
"I'd rather see the young boys eat," Barkley told Sirianni.
Check out the clip below...
Saquon Barkley wanted the young guys to play instead of going for his record. What a teammate. @saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/tJi8waO7MY
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 21, 2024
"I usually like to keep my conversations with guys private," Sirianni said after Sunday's win, going on to make a clear exception for Barkley. "Frank Reich would always say to me 'Make sure we know when somebody's on the verge of doing something really special' because it's hard to do that. It's hard to recapture that, or breaking a record or whatever it is. It's similar to [DeVonta Smith] breaking the rookie single-season record a couple of years ago. We really wanted to get that for him.
"So that was on our mind because I got the word from the box that he was close to his career high, and I sat there with him and I said 'Listen, here's where you are, and here's what it is.' He looked at me and he said – I mean this gives me chills to think about, like this guy is such a great teammate and all he cares about is winning. He looked at me and he said 'Let the other guys eat.'
"I was like 'You're special, dude.' He's a special player. He's a special person. I read all the stuff that all the Giants players were saying about him. They said it was gonna be war, but they all love him, and I know this football team loves him."
The Eagles faithful, too, even more so after that clip was released.
The Eagles' offense has struggled to fully click with a consistent gameplan, but Barkley since signing with the team as a free agent in the offseason has been every bit of the force out of the backfield that the organization could've hoped for – and much to Joe Schoen's increasing embarrassment after the offseason "Hard Knocks" showed how the New York GM just let the Giants' biggest star of the past decade essentially walk straight to Philadelphia.
It's been a weirdly rough season for the Eagles so far, headlined by close wins but just as many issues that could've cost them or in some cases already did.
But Week 7 was a good week, capped off by a win over a division rival and with their most thorough effort in over a year, with Barkley as the star of it all.
"That guy's selfless," Sirianni said. "That guy's a baller, and I can't say enough good things about him."
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