Giants vs. Eagles: Saquon Barkley reacts to Week 18 decision

5:10 PM: As we found out earlier today, Head Coach Nick Sirianni told reporters the starters will be rested on Sunday against the Giants – including Saquon Barkley, who is 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record (2,105).

Barkley met with the media at his locker on Wednesday to discuss how he felt about the decision to give the starters rest with the Eagles being locked into the No. 2 seed.

“My reaction was kind of like I told my family, obviously, my family probably wanted it a little bit more than me, but at the end of the day, the most important thing is winning football games and winning the playoffs. So, I got a bigger goal in mind anyway,” Barkley said.

“He asked me if I wanted to play, if I want to go for it. I said on Sunday, you know, I probably didn’t care for too much for it. When I slept on it, it was like it was an opportunity to implement my name in football history. May never get another opportunity like that again, so I’m down, but at the end of day, I don’t care (about getting the record) if we’re putting the team at risk. He’s the head coach for a reason, he makes the decisions, and whatever decision he wanted to make, I let him know if you want me to play, I’m going to go out there and make sure I get it, and if we don’t, I’m OK with that too.”

As the Eagles gear up for the playoffs, Barkley is feeling good and knows the rest will help.

“I think it’s important because we haven’t had a bye since Week 5, so we’ve been going at it since then. Won 10 in a row, lost one, then won another one. So it’s like, I think the rest definitely is going to help rather than hurt us,” he said.

“Me, personally, I feel great. If I had to go out there and get the record, I felt really good enough to do it, too. I made a joke to one of my boys the other night, my body doesn’t feel like I ran for 2,000 yards, so that’s a good thing. And got to give a shoutout to all the people that helped me feel like that.” – Liam Wichser