Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is so close, yet so far away from reaching Erick Dickerson’s 40-year-old rushing yards record. 

Dickerson holds the NFL record for most rushing yards in a single regular season with 2,105 which he set back in 1984. 

Meanwhile, Barkley enters Week 17 against the Dallas Cowboys with 1,838 yards and needs just 278 yards to break it. 

That means Barkley needs to average at least 139 yards on the ground this Sunday against Dallas and next week against the New York Giants. That shouldn’t be hard to do considering Barkley has run for more than 140 yards in six games this season. 

The only issue reaching the record is that Barkley might not play in the Eagles’ regular season finale game since the team is already locked into the playoffs and it would make sense to rest their star rusher. 

In fact, ESPN’s Adam Schefter suggests the Eagles could very well rest all of their starters depending on their seed placement to benefit themselves in more ways than one. 

“If the Eagles seed is in hand and there’s nothing at stake,” Schefter explained, “I would say they would not want to get Saquon the record because you know what, they would want to sit down, rest their players, and make sure the Giants win that last game so the Giants then fall from No. 1-2 to No. 7 and don’t get their quarterback of the future.”

If that happens, then Barkley wouldn’t crack the record, but if one knows Barkley, then they know he would not care. 

Earlier this season, Barkley had a chance to break his own career-high rushing yards in a single game against his former team but opted to sit the rest of the game out and let the younger guys finish the fourth quarter. 

“I’m good. Let them eat,” Barkley said when asked by head coach Nick Sirianni if he wanted to break his personal record. “… I’d rather see the young boys eat.”

So while it would be cool to watch Barkley take over the league’ rushing yards record 40 years later, we likely won’t see it happen — even if he has a choice.