The 2024 NFL season has yielded remarkable achievements, particularly within the realm of rushing performance, as evidenced by the historic seasons of running backs Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry. Both athletes, now gracing new teams, have surpassed the monumental threshold of 2,000 rushing yards, with Barkley achieving an impressive 2,283 yards and Henry amassing 2,114 yards. Despite these extraordinary individual accomplishments, it is noteworthy that neither the Baltimore Ravens nor the Philadelphia Eagles, the teams to which these players have transitioned, rank among the top ten in NFL history for the most rushing first downs in a single season. This episode delves into the statistics surrounding these exceptional performances while providing a broader context regarding their historical significance in the fabric of American football. We invite you to explore these intriguing narratives and the lessons they impart about the evolving landscape of the sport.
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Transcripts
Speaker A:
What a great:
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We had two running backs have historic seasons on new teams.
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Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry.
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But their stats, how do they stack up against the rest of football history in the NFL?
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We have that and more with some surprising stats coming up in just a moment.
Speaker B:
This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history on a day to day basis.
Speaker B:
Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North SH to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.
Speaker B:
So as we come out of the tunnel of the Sports History Network, let's take the field and go no huddle through the portal of positive gridiron history with pigskindispatch.com.
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This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.
Speaker C:
You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.com hello my football friends.
Speaker A:
This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.
Speaker A:
And what a season:
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We just finished with a great super bowl win by the Philadelphia Eagles.
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It wasn't a great super bowl by any means, as pretty much a one sided blowout, but just showed how dominant that the Philadelphia Eagles were in, you know, their stingy defense.
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An offense that just was surprisingly good.
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Counting so much on the run all year and then having these, these pass plays that they did against the Chiefs.
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The Chiefs pretty much they were shutting down Saquon Barkley but you know, couldn't stop Mr.
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Hurts who was killing him with his legs and through the air and just very effective.
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So great win.
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Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Eagles fans on that second super bowl win by the franchise.
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But being the sort of nerd and stat geek that I am, I'm always sort of into that and you know, preparing for shows and everything.
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I was on Stat Head and Pro Football Reference, two great websites by the sports reference company.
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You know, if you haven't subscribed to Stat Head, you don't know what you're missing.
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There's some great things on there and one of the things I came up with as I was going through, I found a stat on Stat Head about the most rushing first downs in NFL history.
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I went all the way back to:
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Saquon Barkley, who Was, you know, the offensive guru of the season.
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You know, what a story he was.
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He ended up having record performance, had over 2,000 yards rushing this year, 125.3 yards per game.
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Just a tremendous season.
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And he was transplanted, of course, from the New York Giants, went on to the New York, the Philadelphia Eagles.
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We also had another running back that was transplanted from his original team, that's Derek Henry, who also rushed for over 2,000 yards.
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Barkley had:
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imore Ravens, was second with:
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Now the the he accounted for 34.8%.
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Of the Eagles scrimmage yards to Saquon Barkley.
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And that's the highest rate of any.
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Team for one player above 30%.
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nd the Philadelphia Eagles of:
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Which kind of surprised me about that.
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was Baltimore, but It was in:
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They had 188 rushes for first down.
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s the New England Patriots in:
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d was the Los Angeles Rams in:
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o Bears with Walter Payton in:
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Or fourth the Miami Dolphins with Mercury Morrison, Larry Zonka And Jim Kick, 170 of them and took fifth place.
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Baltimore in:
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Detroit in:
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r seventh place, Baltimore in:
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The 86 Bears with Walter Payton, 166.
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The Washington Redskins with the Diesel running the ball 165.
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And then in 11th and 12th place is Baltimore and Philadelphia, respectfully tied at 164.
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them or tied with them is the:
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These are rushing first downs, most in a season by the league.
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Now we have to put this in place too in perspective.
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The:
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2022 Baltimore Ravens had 17 games.
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Everybody else had 16 except for the third place Rams did it in 14 games.
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And the fifth place Dolphins that in 14 games.
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So, you know, as great of a season as those two individuals had, their team rushing was tremendous, you know, top 12 in NFL history.
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But there was 10 teams better than them as a team rushing for first downs.
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Just kind of an amazing feat.
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Just something interesting to look at with the stats and something to appreciate football history in light of what happened in this historic year of rushing from Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry and being on brand new teams, that's what we have today just to offer for football history.
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We have plenty of football history each and every day.
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Till next time everybody.
Speaker D:
Have a great gridiron day.
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That's all the football history we have today folks.
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Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.
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This podcast is part of the Sports Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.
