Can Eagles RB Saquon Barkley ever catch up to the historic milestone Derrick Henry just hit?
Baltimore Ravens lead rusher Derrick Henry made NFL history on Sunday, becoming just the 32nd running back to ever hit 10,000 rushing yards. Henry, who is in his ninth season, entered Week 5 needing just 18 more yards to reach that milestone, which he did in the first half of Baltimore's overtime win over the Cincinnati […]
Baltimore Ravens lead rusher Derrick Henry made NFL history on Sunday, becoming just the 32nd running back to ever hit 10,000 rushing yards.
Henry, who is in his ninth season, entered Week 5 needing just 18 more yards to reach that milestone, which he did in the first half of Baltimore's overtime win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
He's now just the fourth player since 2011 to hit that incredible mark, joining LeSean McCoy, Adrian Peterson, and Frank Gore.
Reaching 10,000 rushing yards is far from easy and is only getting harder, but it helps that Henry has remained healthy for most of his career and has had three 1,500-yard seasons, including a 2,000-yard season.
One now has to wonder what other running backs are on track to joining that 10k list.
Can Saquon Barkley reach 10k rushing yards?
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley could be in the conversation as one running back who's on pace to eventually make it to 10,000 yards.
Right now, Barkley is at 5,646 rushing yards and will reach 6,000 or more by the time the 2024 NFL season is over.
That leaves him with 4,000 rushing yards or a little less to get there. The only downfall is that Barkley isn't getting any younger and running backs don't have a long shelf life. He's 27 years old and already in his seventh season, so that would mean he'd need to have not one, but two 2,000-yard years to do it in the same amount of time that Henry did.
That's near impossible but it doesn't mean he can't get to 10,000, eventually. What really derailed Barkley's quicker road to 10k was his 2019 season where he was healthy for only two games. And then he wasn't himself in 2020 once he returned and logged just 593 rushing yards that year. It also doesn't help that he had been stuck in New York running behind one of the worst offensive lines in the league for the majority of his career.
While Barkley might not be able to hit 10,000 in nine seasons like Henry, or even 10 like Gore, there is a real, yet slight chance that he could achieve the milestone by his 11th or 12th NFL season (in 2028 or 2029). That would still be crazy, but as long as he stays healthy and a dominant force in the backfield, then anything is possible.
Philadelphia Eagles lose in Week 5 without even playing a game
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