The Giants have until July 17 to reach an extension agreement with Saquon Barkley. Otherwise, the Pro Bowl running back would be forced to play the season on the franchise tag. While acrimony has come out during this process, Barkley is still in talks with the Giants, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com.
Barkley turned down multiple proposals from the Giants, one of which in the $13MM-per-year neighborhood. The former Offensive Rookie of the Year has expressed frustration about the leaks from the team’s side during the talks, and the Giants’ previous top offer — which was taken off the table after team applied the tag in March — is not believed to have been favorable on the guarantee side.
Offer No. 1 came during the Giants’ bye week last season, and it was believed to be north of $12MM per year. But Barkley and the Giants did not come close to a deal at that point. The second proposal came this offseason, when the Giants attempted to keep both Barkley and Daniel Jones off the market. They succeeded, extending the fifth-year quarterback minutes before the franchise tag deadline. The third phase of discussions began shortly after the draft, per the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy (Twitter link). Since the Barkley tag, however, not much has come out regarding terms.
The prospect of Barkley missing training camp — absent a long-term deal by the July extension date — has emerged, but Rapoport notes the Penn State product should not be expected to follow in Le’Veon Bell‘s footsteps by skipping the season. While Barkley responded in the affirmative when asked if this strategy was in play, the sixth-year back passing on a $10.9MM guaranteed salary has never been a likely scenario.
While the Giants pulling their offer to Barkley suggested these negotiations could take a bad turn, Rapoport adds a deal should not be considered out of the question. The 26-year-old back is the team’s most popular player, and few running backs are as important to their respective franchises. That said, Barkley went through three injury-plagued seasons prior to a breakthrough contract year.
The Giants being hesitant to provide a substantial guarantee is understandable, and the running back market losing two top contracts (Ezekiel Elliott, Dalvin Cook) this offseason while seeing the other free agent backs struggle did not help the tagged contingent (Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Tony Pollard). Jacobs has expressed disappointment with his time on the tag as well.
The Giants have used their franchise tag seven times since the tag’s 1993 inception and have never failed to hammer out an extension, though two players did play on the tag before being re-signed following a second tag. The team reached an agreement with tackle Jumbo Elliott in 1993 and extended punter Steve Weatherford in 2012. Both Jason Pierre-Paul and Leonard Williams were tagged twice; each signed an extension following the second tag (in 2017 and 2021, respectively).
Barkley bucking that trend would certainly be a notable development for the team, which has also given a big-money deal to Dexter Lawrence this offseason. But if the Giants do not submit an offer with at least $22.2MM guaranteed — which would cover a second Barkley tag in 2024 — it will put the dynamic back to a tough decision.
Good luck holding out. The RB market has shifted once again. He turned down 12 million per year and now he will be lucky to get anywhere near that.
Run Saquon Run!!
Run Saquon Run!
Barkley should have signed the $13 million a year multi year deal when it was on the table. His agent is either very confident that they will get the deal they want or the agent wasn’t paying attention to the market and now doesn’t know how to break the bad news to Saquon.
By offering $13MM the Giants are saying that Daniel Jones is 3x more critical to the team’s success than Barkley…and we all know that is absurd.
I agree it is absurd because we all know how talented Saquon is and how much work he does for the offense.
It’s a bit of a power move on the Giants part. They are saying hey we know your great, we want you to be on the team moving forward but after looking at the market we do not need to pay you what you think you are worth, the market says you are only worth X-amount. I do not agree with this tactic but I do not run an NFL team.
It’s a hard road for running backs right now. Elite RB1’s do so much for their team but it’s not correlating to championships. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year with a 7th RB and a 31 year old Jerick McKinnon. They didn’t pay these guys much and it worked out just fine for them. It’s a copy-cat league, teams see the success on the field and think hey we can build a squad in a similar fashion, if that team can save money at a skill position why can’t we?
If Saquon doesn’t sign the deal, doesn’t sign the tag and decides hey I am sitting out this year, what’s stopping the Giants from going out and signing D. Cook or K. Hunt and just moving forward amicably?
You can’t really look at it that way saying Jones is 3x more critical. The RB and QB markets are completely different. Not denying Barkley’s talents and importance to the team, but this is a QB driven league, and they are much harder to find than a RB. Giants needed to get Jones signed first and foremost.
They can lace a favorably financial deal laced with incentives for maybe two years. And move on. Training camp is about to hit in high gear