Saquon Barkley will not rush for 2,000 yards in 2025, and it has nothing to do with a Super Bowl hangover or a Madden curse.
More than a century of history stands in the way of the Philadelphia Eagles star, who became the ninth member of the 2K club in 2024. It’s a club with zero two-time members.
The first eight players to reach the milestone missed a combined 28 games in their follow-up campaigns and averaged just under 1,080 rushing yards that season — a fine total, for sure, but barely halfway to NFL immortality.
Barkley is only 28 and still in his prime, but he would have to survive another heavy workload after leading the league with a career-high 345 carries in 16 games last season. He will undoubtedly encounter more stacked boxes and other run-targeting game plans, plus Philadelphia will face the NFL’s fourth-toughest schedule (.561 opponents’ winning percentage in 2024).
Those are a few of the factual, physical barriers in his path, to say nothing of the aforementioned mythical roadblocks as both a reigning Super Bowl LIX champion and “Madden NFL 26” cover model.
Not even Barkley can hurdle that many obstacles.
Terrell Davis, the only player besides Barkley to run for 2,000 yards and lift the Lombardi Trophy in the same season, pulled off his Denver double with 2,008 yards in the 1998 regular season and a Broncos win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII.
In 1999, following the retirement of Broncos quarterback John Elway, Davis played only four games and gained 211 yards on the ground — the low-water, next-season mark for 2K members. Davis rushed for only 1,194 more yards in his career after his 1998 MVP campaign, retiring ahead of the 2002 season after a final “Mile High Salute.”
Fellow Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, who at 29 became the oldest club member with 2,053 yards for the Detroit Lions in 1997, came the closest to pulling off back-to-back 2K seasons with 1,491 in his farewell ride in 1998.
Kudos to club members Eric Dickerson, Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson and Jamal Lewis, who all ran for at least 1,000 yards the year after breaking the 2K barrier. Dickerson still holds the NFL single-season record with 2,105 yards for the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.
Derrick Henry got the closest to posting nonconsecutive 2,000-yard seasons, trucking to 1,921 yards in his first year with the Baltimore Ravens in 2024 after amassing 2,027 yards with the Tennessee Titans in 2020. Henry, for what it’s worth, is the only man in NFL history with two 1,900-yard seasons.
Adam “Happy Gilmore” Sandler has promised to cast Henry in one of his films if he puts 2,000 on tape in 2025.
If Barkley gets there in 2025, Philly fans will demand a starring role in the next “Rocky” remake — or at least a cameo behind the bar at Paddy’s Pub on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
Cringe warning: The crossover from gridiron glory to the silver screen has happened before, by the inaugural member of this club, in fact. If only Orenthal James Simpson was still best known for his turn in the “Naked Gun” flicks or for racking up 2,003 yards in just 14 games with the Buffalo Bills in 1973.
Barkley recently said he never set out to rush for 2,000 yards last season, that “it kind of just happened,” admitting it “would be pretty cool” to do it again. But that’s not what motivates him.
“The thing that drives me is the same thing that had been driving me since I was a little kid, and I’ve said it since I’ve gotten into the league (and) I don’t mean it in an arrogant way, (but) I want to be the best running back to ever play, or at least one of the best running backs to ever play,” he said.
“I don’t think there’s a way you can prove who’s the best.”
Actually, we can think of about 2,000 ways, but that’s not happening. Not this year, anyway.
