Saquon Barkley breaks LeSean McCoy’s Eagles record for rushing yards in a season

Standing in his locker stall with a historic jersey tucked away for safekeeping, Saquon Barkley explained both the significance and insignificance of what he had just accomplished.

No, the Eagles running back didn’t have the franchise’s single-season rushing record listed as one of his goals going into his first season with his new team. Still, he was aware of the 1,608 rushing yards it would take to surpass LeSean McCoy’s 11-year-old mark and went into Sunday’s 22-16 win over the Carolina Panthers knowing he was within striking distance.

Barkley also said he didn’t know exactly when he broke it, and his response to the 9-yard carry that vaulted him to No. 1 in the Eagles record books suggests as much. There was no celebration, but rather Barkley regaining his footing, dashing upfield, and imploring to a nearby official that he wasn’t tackled to the ground.

It was a fitting response for the 27-year-old more focused on the lofty goals that lie ahead rather than what’s already been achieved in his first season with the Eagles.

» READ MORE: Saquon Barkley stats: Eagles running back gains 124 rushing yards against Carolina

“I want to be great,” Barkley said. “For me, personally I feel like I did that in high school, I did it at Penn State, I’m always going to have a sour taste in my mouth because I don’t feel like I was able to do that in New York to be honest, the way that I would have liked to. So I’m thankful for the new start that I have here and, with that being said, it’s accomplishing things like I did today, putting my name up there to be mentioned with the greats. And the beauty of it is there have been a lot of great running backs to come from Philadelphia.”

As a Coplay, Pa. native, Barkley acknowledged there was some meaning for him to break McCoy’s record after admiring the former Eagles running back as a kid.

McCoy, nicknamed “Shady,” posted a video on social media to congratulate Barkley on breaking the record he set in the 2013 season.

“Being a fan of Shady’s growing up and seeing the spectacular things he was able to do with the ball in his hands,” Barkley said. “To be able to have my name mentioned with him, that means a lot.”

As the only member of the Eagles offense to have played with both McCoy and Barkley, veteran right tackle Lane Johnson conceded it didn’t quite feel like a decade had passed between his time with each running back.

“The time has gone fast,” Johnson said. “Shady was really entertaining for me as a rookie. He talked a lot of crap, it was fun, and then he went and backed it up. He’s probably one of the most polarizing guys I’ve been around. And Saquon — I would say both backs are just extremely high skill sets with the stuff they can do. I’m proud of him, he had a hard [124] yards today.”

Entering the weekend in need of 109 rushing yards to eclipse McCoy, Barkley finished Sunday’s unnerving win with 124 yards. It’s his ninth game with over 100 rushing yards, another franchise record.

As has been the case for most of Barkley’s first season with the Eagles, his best effort came in the second half with the team trying to protect a lead. He logged 75 rushing yards in the final two quarters, doing his best to mask a disjointed Eagles passing game against the three-win Panthers.

Both Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata and right tackle Johnson said the Panthers mixed up their fronts to throw off the Eagles run game with some success early on, but the group eventually found daylight to get Barkley over the milestone.

His final statistics on Sunday keep him squarely on pace to break the NFL’s all-time rushing record, set by Eric Dickerson with 2,105 yards in 1984. It’s one Barkley has more firmly in his sights and one he mentioned to Mailata after Sunday’s game.

“He said, ‘Let’s go get E.D.’s [record],” Mailata said. “And I said, ‘Yes sir.’ … He’s proud of himself, but at the same time, he still wants more and that’s why we love him. He’s got high standards and he wants to break records.”

Barkley added: “Obviously that would be extremely cool to do. But at the end of the day, if it happens, it happens. I’m not with the mindset that I’m scared to go try and do it. Whatever it takes to go win football games, if that’s in the way of it, then that’s in the way of it. And if it’s not, then it doesn’t matter to me. I want to win football games and do something special for the city. I think we all know what that is.”