Eagles still undecided if Saquon Barkley, starters will face Giants in season finale

Eagles still undecided if Saquon Barkley, starters will face Giants in season finale

The Giants just snapped a 10-game losing streak and could next see their odds of ending a different 11-game skid increase.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said Monday that he is still undecided on whether or not to play starters against the Giants.

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (r.) shakes Giants head coach Brian Daboll's hand after the Eagles' win at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 20, 2024.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley (r.) shakes Giants head coach Brian Daboll’s hand after the Eagles’ win at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 20, 2024. Noah K. Murray for the NY Post

The Eagles are locked into the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and risking injury unnecessarily Sunday would sound like blasphemy except that Saquon Barkley is 101 yards away from setting the NFL’s single-season rushing record.

If Barkley is going to chase the record against the team that let him walk in free agency, the Eagles likely would need to play their starting offensive line, too.

Starting quarterback Jalen Hurts has missed most of the past two games due to a concussion.

“Still not there,” Sirianni said on Monday afternoon. “I’ll always inform our players first, but still sorting through at this particular moment.”

If the Eagles play backups, the Giants have a better chance to win in Philadelphia for the first time since 2013 (11 straight includes one playoff loss).

Sirianni sat starters in Week 18 of 2021 when the Eagles were locked into the No. 7 seed.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

“You take everything into account,” Sirianni said. “Try to do the best thing for the team and the best thing for each individual player, too.”

A win for the Giants would further damage their slot in the 2025 draft, after falling from No. 1 to No. 4 by beating the Colts.

“Go through the tape like we normally go through the tape,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “We’re just getting started here on the Eagles. I’ve got a lot of respect for Saquon and he’s a heck of a player.”

WR Wan’Dale Robinson looked like a 5-foot-8 bowling ball as he dragged defenders on a 35-yard catch down to the 9-yard line to set up the decisive touchdown in the win against the Colts.

Robinson dropped a wide-open gimme before he immediately responded with two catches for 53 yards, including the 35-yarder.

“I was mad at myself,” Robinson said. “I was like, ‘The easiest one you are going to have all year, you drop it.’ As soon as the play call came back in, I knew it was for me and I was like, ‘Let’s make this play.’ That’s how I always am when I get the ball in my hands – never trying to go down.”

Daboll said “there wasn’t much” injury news out of the game.

WR Malik Nabers, who went in with a toe injury, “will be OK” after going off for seven catches and 171 yards.

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