Saquon Barkley rushing pace keeps him within striking distance of Eric Dickerson, but should it count?

Adding Saquon Barkley to the Philadelphia Eagles was so obviously a good idea that people started overthinking it and convincing themselves it wasn't that good of an idea.

Heading into Week 16, Barkley had 285 carries for 1,688 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. That's good for 120.6 yards per game — almost a good enough pace to break Eric Dickerson's NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, which he set in 1984.

Barkley needs to go a little over his average in the last few games of the season if he wants to break that record — he'll need to average 139 yards per game, and he's just about at that mark today — and runs like this will help him get there.

Barkley has an extra game to break Dickerson's record

When Eric Dickerson rushed for 2105 yard in 1984, the NFL season was 16 games long. In 2024, with Barkley hot on his heels, the NFL season has an extra game. Should Barkley's season be counted the same way as Dickerson's season was?

Yes. Sports change rules, regulations and season lengths all the time; that shouldn't mean the leagues should reset the record books for the new generation. If the old records are broken, that's fine! It's good!

It's fine to preface Barkley's potential record by saying that he broke the record of Eric Dickerson who played 16 games. But it's taken 40 years to get to this point, and it would be revisionist history to act like the record is less impressing because Barkley had an extra game to acheive it.

Aaron Judge's 62-home run season for the Yankees wasn't less impressive because it was done in Yankee Stadium, which is smaller than other baseball fields. Luka Doncic averaging 33.9 points per game last season isn't less impressive because the 3-point line exists now. And Saquon Barkley's monster season isn't less impressive because he has an extra game to play.