In view of the Eagles’ upcoming playoff duties, Head Coach Nick Sirianni is also sparing running back Saquon Barkley. This may deprive him of a unique opportunity.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been certain to make the playoffs for quite some time.

Since last Sunday, it has also been clear that they will enter the Wild Card Round as the second-seeded team in the NFC.

Head coach Nick Sirianni is taking this as an opportunity to rest some of his stars for the last, meaningless home game against the New York Giants. This includes running back Saquon Barkley.

From the team’s point of view, it makes perfect sense to rest him in view of the difficult playoff tasks ahead. Barkley himself took the decision in a sporting manner.

Even if it means he no longer has a chance of breaking Eric Dickerson’s record for most rushing yards in a season.

Barkley described it as “an opportunity to put my name in the history books” and admitted that this chance might not come again in the future. But he said it was “fine” not to play, as he didn’t want to jeopardize any of the team’s bigger goals.

“My family probably wanted it a little bit more than I did,” Barkley said. ‘The most important thing is winning football games and winning in the playoffs. I have a bigger goal in mind.’

He would have needed exactly 101 more yards to surpass Dickerson’s 2,105 yards. This opportunity has now been taken from him by being rested against the Giants.

He will be back in the first playoff round, though, when the team faces either the Green Bay Packers or the Washington Commanders.