The Case to Bench Saquon Barkley for Week 18
Ignore the Dangling Erik Dickerson Record Carrot – This is Why the Eagles Must Sit Saquon This Weekend.
Don’t be brave — we’re not making a western here.
Please don’t play Saquon Barkley this weekend.
PHOTO: Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
I’m willing to crush my fantasy football aspirations for the greater good. Go ahead and place Barkley, Hurts, Brown, Goedert, Smith, the entire offensive line, the whole Eagles defense, and all those amazing rookies in the Novacare Complex with plenty of chips and dip. Cryogenically freeze them for all I care (we need them thawed for playoff time, though).
The Philadelphia Eagles are the most complete team in the NFC playoffs and the NFL Playoffs. They are best built to win at home or to go on the road and win in the chill of January — with one asterisk.
Without Jalen Hurts or Saquon Barkley — it’s almost certainly game over. As in, see you again in the summer of 2025.
Speaking of being built to win at home or away, thanks to the Minnesota Vikings win this weekend against the Green Bay Packers — the Eagles will almost certainly be the #2 seed in the NFC Playoffs. That means that to win it all, the Eagles will have to play in Super Wildcard Weekend, which means that this Eagles team will not get any break going into or throughout the NFC Playoffs. If a week eighteen game against the New York Giants doesn’t matter — don’t play the starters. Make it another pre-season game.
The Eagles didn’t just give the twenty-seven-year-old Saquon Barkley $37.75 million this season. They invested in him for years of NFL dominance on the ground. An injury in a meaningless week eighteen game could be catastrophic to the Eagles for years. If you start Saquon in this game, you’ll be locked into playing him until the record is broken.
And then there are the New York Giants — Barkley’s former I-95 team — who have every incentive to stop Saquon from eclipsing Eric Dickerson.
In the words of Master Yoda — if they try to stop him, they will.
Saquon Barkley’s goal for 2025 isn’t to set an NFL record.
It’s to win a companion Lombardi Trophy, placed in the illuminated case in the Novacare Complex next to the shiny 2018 silver showpiece in South Philly.
Don’t risk Saquon Barkley along the journey.
Please.
PHOTO: Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
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