A year ago from today, nobody — not you, not me, not anybody — thought that Saquon Barkley was going to rush for over 2,000 yards in the regular season and then break the NFL record for total rushing yards in a complete season… But here we are.
So why not look at some other records that the Philadelphia Eagles could break this upcoming season? We’re looking at records that have been around for eight years, over 50 years, and something that’s never been done before.
The Eagles’ 2024 offense was a slaughterhouse: When they wanted to run the ball, they could. And when they needed to throw the ball, they could (for the most part). These are records based on those two things that the Eagles can break in 2025. To be fair, some of them are more doable than others, and they depend on how this offense decides to roll.
Career postseason rushing yards
From 2002 to 2009, Brian Westbrook played in 11 playoff games with the Eagles. In 2002 (his rookie season when he played behind Duce Staley), he rushed for only three yards. In 2004, it was 210 yards. In 2006, it was 257 yards. In 2008, it was 119 yards, and we don’t talk about 2009. Those combined set the Eagles’ franchise record at 591 career postseason rushing yards.
In 2024, Saquon Barkley rushed for 499 yards in the postseason... In just four games, Barkley got himself to within 100 yards of the second-best Eagles running back of the past 25 years. That’s wild.
Obviously, there’s a lot that has to go right for Barkley to be able to get the remaining 93 yards that he needs to break Westbrook’s record, but it does seem entirely doable. That far into the season, you have to worry about injuries, wear and tear, and other unfun stuff like that… but this seems entirely gettable for King-Quan.
Career regular season rushing touchdowns
Regardless of the people he played against and how offenses functioned when he played, it’s still incredibly impressive that Steve Van Buren’s 69 career rushing touchdowns has been the Eagles franchise record for the past 73 years. That’s crazy.
Players like Wilbert Montgomery (45 rushing touchdowns), LeSean McCoy (44), Brian Westbrook (37), and Randall Cunningham (32) weren’t able to sniff that number.
Enter Jalen Hurts and his current total of 55. Since he became the starter in 2021, he’s averaged 13 rushing touchdowns per year, and he hit a career high in 2023 with 15. That’s the number he’ll need to hit this season to break Van Buren’s 69.
I would assume that’s going to be in play, especially after the whole ‘banning the tush push’ thing this offseason. Hell, he might break that number in Week 10 against the Packers. You have to think there’s going to be a team meeting before that game where Nick Sirianni tells everyone to go down at the one-yard line, just so they can run the play purely out of a rage-induced spite.
No one would be mad at that… except for everyone else who’s mad it didn’t get banned, but those people’s opinions don’t matter.
Single-season passing touchdowns
The 2017 version of Carson Wentz was special, and no one will ever forget that. He capped off a MVP-worthy season by throwing his franchise record-setting 33rd touchdown pass on a torn ACL, and then it all kind of went down the toilet for him over the next three years.
It’s going to be incredibly difficult for Jalen Hurts to beat that number, but it is possible. His career high is the 23 that he threw in 2023, and that was from 538 throws. Last season, he hit 18 from 361 throws. For him to hit 34 or even 33 to tie it, he’ll need to be throwing the ball a whole lot more than he did last season.
There’s a running theory (and it makes sense) that the passing game is going to be a bigger feature in 2025. Barkley is coming off a season with 436 carries, and the Eagles just dumped a pile of cash in his front yard. One thought is that they’ll probably try not to run him into the ground like they did last year, and if Barkley's not getting the ball, it should be going to the Hurts’ elite pass catchers; that makes sense.
The other piece of this is that Kevin Patullo is the new offensive coordinator, and he got that job after being a passing game coordinator/specialist for the past five years. If he’s the one calling the plays, it seems like throwing the ball is going to be his forte. That makes even more sense when you pair it with the whole ‘Barkley wear and tear’ thing.
Can Hurts break Wentz’s record? Yes, but it would take a pretty significant (yet, kind of probable) shift in the offense’s identity.
Back-to-back 2,000 rushing yards
Last season, Saquon Barkley became the ninth player to ever hit the 2,000-yard rushing mark in a single season. Not only is that a very small number of people who have done it, but no one has ever done it twice.
Maybe Barkley’s right when he’s saying that he’s in the best shape of his life and he’s entering his prime right now. I mean, before the Super Bowl, I went back and watched every one of his 411 carries at that point and charted how bad each hit was. From what I saw, it makes sense that he would say his recovery after last season is going really well.
IF all that is correct, 2,000 yards in 2025 shouldn’t be off the table. His offensive line is still going to be awesome, his quarterback is still a plus-one in the run game, and all of the other weapons on the field are still going to be awesome.
If this does end up happening, it means that there’s about a 0.0001% chance that Hurts hits that 33 passing touchdown mark, but that’s totally fine.
It’s far-fetched, audacious, and all-around boneheaded to predict (or even imply) that a running back in the current offensive landscape of the NFL can do something like this… But it’s June, I’m a bonehead, and it’s Barkley behind the Eagles' offensive line that we’re talking about.