HEADLINES

Teams Calling Giants On Saquon Barkley

October 30th, 2023 at 10:25pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Giants’ Leonard Williams trade has provided a fairly clear signal the Giants are fine building for the future. After their surprise surge to the 2022 divisional round, the Giants sit 2-6 and not in position to contend this season.

Saquon Barkley has said he does not want to be traded, and Brian Daboll attempted to squash trade overtures last week by saying a deal was “not happening.” But teams are still checking in. Clubs have continued to contact the Giants on Barkley, Jeff Howe of The Athletic tweets. Once again, the Giants rebuffed inquiries, with CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson confirming teams have received no’s on Barkley inquiries.

With just less than 24 hours until the trade deadline, teams’ interest certainly makes sense — especially now that the Giants moved Williams to the Seahawks. Injuries on offense have driven the Giants to this 2-6 hole, with Sunday’s Jets loss featuring the fewest team passing yards — minus-9 — in the NFL this century. Barkley still displayed quality work, putting together a 36-carry, 128-yard performance despite the team refusing to allow UDFA Tommy DeVito to throw. Barkley, 26, suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 2; Sunday provided a decent refresher that the franchise-tagged back is once again healthy.

With the Giants having played eight games, an acquiring team would be on the hook for nine weeks of Barkley’s $10.1MM salary. That works out to just more than $5.5MM. The Giants are paying most of the remaining $10MM on Williams’ salary, but seeing as the team is keeping Barkley off the market, it would stand to reason it is not exactly open to paying some of the Pro Bowl back’s salary to facilitate a trade. Seeing as Barkley is on the tag, however, he does remain an interesting piece that teams clearly are not giving up on potentially obtaining.

The Giants and Barkley could not come to terms on a summer extension, despite negotiations having begun in November 2022. Barkley, who was dangled in trades during the 2022 offseason, was six minutes from free agency at the March deadline to apply franchise tags. But the Giants reaching an extension agreement with Daniel Jones prevented the more talented player from testing the market. The sides then engaged in an unusual negotiation leading up to the July 17 extension deadline for tagged players. The Giants upped Barkley’s guarantees to the $22MM neighborhood but reduced his AAV number in the process. In the end, the sides were less than $2MM apart in terms of guaranteed money and AAV. No deal transpired, opening the door to a Barkley 2024 departure.

While Barkley was obviously interested in gauging his worth in free agency, he has repeatedly said he wants to stay with the Giants. The team will have the option of tagging the former No. 2 overall pick once again, at just more than $12MM, next year. Keeping Barkley past this year’s deadline will keep that option open for the Giants, though considering they extended Jones, Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas and tagged Barkley, it is worth wondering if the New Jersey native is a core piece any longer.

Teams are seeing if that remains the case. The Ravens and Dolphins are believed to be looking into running back additions. Miami asked about Barkley this summer, but it did not appear the teams discussed him for long. With the Titans either committed to keeping Derrick Henry or holding out hope for a big offer, teams are looking into Barkley. As of Monday afternoon, the Penn State alum is being kept off the market.

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