Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has a giant determination to make going into their Week 18 sport towards the New York Giants.
He has to weigh the professionals and cons of probably resting working again Saquon Barkley earlier than the playoffs, or letting him go on the market towards the New York Giants — his former group — to get the 101 yards he wants to interrupt Eric Dickerson’s single-season dashing report.
It’s not a simple determination.
Barkley stated after Sunday’s 41-7 win over the Dallas Cowboys that regardless that he would love an opportunity on the report, he is good with whatever Sirianni decides.
The potential for Barkley to interrupt a report that has stood for 40 years and to probably achieve this towards his former group is completely compelling. It might even be one other massive argument for him to get into the MVP race alongside Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, Buffalo Payments quarterback Josh Allen and probably Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
However until the Eagles have an opportunity to maneuver into the No. 1 seed and earn a bye week with homefield benefit all through the playoffs (there’s a small mathematical likelihood for it, however the odds aren’t of their favor), there may be extra danger than reward for the Eagles to place Barkley on the sector in what would largely be a meaningless sport.
He has already carried the ball extra occasions (314) than he has in any season and is just seven complete touches (345) away from his profession excessive (352). That may be a large workload for a veteran working again who has already had some accidents all through his profession.
The Eagles are loaded on offense, however Barkley has been the participant who has introduced your entire factor collectively and actually elevated that facet of the ball right into a Tremendous Bowl-contending unit. If they’re even moderately wholesome going into the playoffs, they’ll have nearly as good of an opportunity as anyone within the NFL to win all of it. It must be the largest aim, the expectation and the one precedence. If they’re going to do this and win within the playoffs, he is likely one of the gamers they have to be recent and wholesome.
Accidents can occur at any time and on any play. That’s the nature of the sport. That also doesn’t imply groups ought to take pointless dangers when they are often averted. That’s the reason groups with nothing to play for within the common season finale have a tendency to sit down their key starters. A number of key Eagles will possible sit towards the Giants. Barkley must be certainly one of them. The report is inside attain, and people alternatives not often come round. However neither do the possibilities to win Tremendous Bowls. The potential draw back and backlash that Sirianni and the Eagles would face if he ended up getting injured pursuing the report could be huge, particularly if it helped price them an opportunity at a championship.
