What A Difference A Year Has Made For Eagles Saquon Barkley

PHILADELPHA – Rewind to last year: Saquon Barkley is closing in on 2,000 yards. Can he do it? He has 1,688 yards after 14 games.

Fast forward to right now: Saquon Barkley is closing in on 1,000 yards. He’ll get there, but will it be against the Commanders on Saturday? He has 940 yards after 14 games.

What a difference a year makes. Still, getting 60 yards against a Commanders defense that ranks 28th in run defense would give him his first back-to-back 1,000-plus-yard season since his rookie year in 2018, when he had 1,307, which was followed by 1,003 yards in 2019.

“Any time you can rush for 1,000 yards, it’s a big deal,” he said. “The year hasn’t gone, statistically-wise, like (it went) last year for even what I would have predicted because of the way I train, and the way I work.

“But sometimes that’s how the game goes. And my mindset is I can still have the impact on the season that I want to. That’s finishing this season strong, and going into the playoffs. That’s when it really matters most. So all of that is still in front of me, and I’m excited for the opportunity.”

Saquon Barkley's Body Holding Up

Another rewind to last year: Can Barkley’s body hold up with the workload he is getting? He has 345 regular-season carries with 33 catches. That’s 378 touches. He added another 91 carries and 13 catches in the postseason. Add it up, and he touched the ball a whopping 482 times.

Another fast forward to right now: His body held up, but is it the same? He’s had 240 carries and 37 catches for a total of 277 touches.

“I feel like that I put a lot of time in my body, a lot of work in my body, spent a lot of money on my body,” he said. “So hopefully, it pays back, but sometimes that’s not the case. I’ve had offseasons where I felt great. I’ve had seasons where I’ve felt great, and I stepped on someone’s foot and roll an ankle, or I make a routine stiff-arm and I blew my knee out.

“It’s part of the game. So, it’s more of you can’t lose sight of every time you come off that field healthy, it’s a blessing because the game can be taken away from you at any single moment. So I do put a lot of hard work in, but once you do realize that all of that is out of your control, you sleep a lot better at night.”

The Eagles (9-5) snapped a three-game losing streak last Sunday with a 31-0 win over the Vikings. The Commanders (4-10) snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Giants. They have been eliminated from the playoffs, though.

Philly can wrap up its second straight NFC East title with a win and qualify for the playoffs, which would mark their eighth postseason appearance in the last nine seasons, a run that include three trips to the Super Bowl and a two Sper Bowl titles.

Getting Barkley back to what he was last year over the final three games – or something close – could go a long way in making a push to repeat as world champions.

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