Looking Into The Four Remaining Franchise Tag Situations
Less than two weeks remain until this year’s franchise tag extension deadline. Following spring extensions for Lamar Jackson and Daron Payne, four franchise-tagged players remain. Three of those (Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, Josh Jacobs) have not signed their respective tenders. Cowboys running back Tony Pollard has, guaranteeing his 2023 salary.
If no extension agreements are finalized before 3pm CT on July 17, these players will be tied to the tag this season. For players who remain on the tag after that date, no long-term negotiations are permitted until season’s end. With one position dominating the tag landscape this year, here is how the four situations look entering crunch time:
Saquon Barkley, Giants; tag price: $10.1MM
Easily the negotiation that has brought the most twists and turns, Barkley has been in off-and-on talks with the Giants since November. The Giants’ Joe Schoen–Brian Daboll regime inherited Barkley, but they have extended two other Dave Gettleman-era draftees (Daniel Jones, Dexter Lawrence) this offseason. But the team’s most popular player finds himself is battling another leaguewide devaluation of the running back position. As Barkley turned down two offers with AAVs north of $12MM — one of those being higher than $13MM per year — the Giants pulled their top proposal off the table after their March extension-tag sequence involving Jones and Barkley.
Barkley, 26, took issue with being characterized as greedy, citing Giants leaks that did not reveal the full truth about the offers he declined. Insufficient guarantees hover at the root of Barkley’s gripes. With the Giants having the option of re-tagging Barkley for barely $12MM in 2023, it is understandable the two-time Pro Bowler would seek a guarantee north of $22MM per year — to cover both tags.
Only two veteran backs (Christian McCaffrey and Derrick Henry) are tied to deals including more than $20MM fully guaranteed. While McCaffrey encountered injuries on his second contract, the 1,000-1,000 performer did not run into Barkley’s rookie-deal health issues. Those could certainly be giving Giants brass pause regarding guarantees.
These talks have included rumblings of Barkley skipping training camp — if unsigned by July 17 — and a (likely idle) threat of following Le’Veon Bell‘s 2018 path of sitting out the season in protest. The Giants are believed to be OK with Barkley playing on the tag, but ownership remains high on the former No. 2 overall pick. That might be driving the recent optimism in these talks. The skill-position-deficient Giants relied on Barkley (1,650 scrimmage yards) last season, and while they have let two players (Jason Pierre-Paul, Leonard Williams) play on the tag, the team has never not extended a player whom it tagged. (Both D-linemen signed extensions after being tagged again.)
Evan Engram, Jaguars; tag price: $11.35MM
Barkley’s former Giants teammate broke through for a Jaguars single-season tight end record last season, posting 766 receiving yards to boost Trevor Lawrence‘s development. The Jaguars added Calvin Ridley but cuffed Engram as well. Both the Jags and the seventh-year tight end want to strike a deal, but the most recent rumor coming out of these talks placed the sides as far apart on terms.
Dating back to their Julius Thomas miss, the Jaguars have struggled to staff this position. Engram provided a win for GM Trent Baalke, whose first free agency class as lead Jags decision-maker made significant contributions. But Engram also has a history of inconsistency, having never put it together for an extended stretch as a Giant. Engram does have an original-ballot Pro Bowl nod on his resume (2020) and saw the Giants pick up his fifth-year option prior to that performance. His 2021 provided a letdown, but the Giants — with Jones going down with a neck injury that November — were not exactly in position to see any pass catcher thrive at that point.
Guarantees are undoubtedly an issue here. A 2024 Engram tag would cost $13.62MM, likely giving the 28-year-old pass catcher a guarantee target of $25MM. Only three veteran tight ends (Mark Andrews, George Kittle, Hunter Henry) have secured that at signing, but with those deals taking place in 2020 or ’21, Engram can make a case — on a $224.8MM salary cap — he deserves such security as well. The tight end market appears out of step with its top cogs’ contributions, with Travis Kelce still tied to a $14.3MM-per-year deal. That offers an interesting complication in these Engram discussions as well.
Josh Jacobs, Raiders; tag price: $10.1MM
A threat to miss game checks makes more sense from Barkley, who has earned nearly $40MM in five seasons. Jacobs following suit is less logical, as he has made $11.9MM in four NFL years. The Raiders passed on Jacobs’ fifth-year option, and he proceeded to become the team’s first rushing champion since Marcus Allen did so in a 1985 MVP season. Jacobs, 25, zoomed onto the tag radar with his 2022 performance, but while the Giants have made multiple offers to Barkley, it is unclear if the Raiders are making a serious push to extend Jacobs. The team is still hopeful, but numbers have proven elusive.
The Alabama product has offered cryptic assessments of his negotiations, hinting at making a stand for the running back position. Seeing as Bell has expressed belated regret for passing on $14MM with his 2018 anti-tag crusade, it would surprise if Barkley or Jacobs stayed away into the season. It might be a negotiating tactic, as RBs are low on leverage these days, but the threat of Jacobs skipping Week 1 has surfaced. With Josh McDaniels in a crucial year — after his first Raiders HC season went south quickly — and the Raiders now employing the league’s most injury-prone quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo), Jacobs putting regular-season absences on the table is an interesting move.
While Jacobs is still more likely than not to be in uniform in Week 1, the prospect of an injury or regression affecting his 2024 market should be a factor here. Jacobs’ light Crimson Tide workload (251 college carries) worked in his favor, but the Raiders giving him an NFL-most 393 touches last season undercuts that advantage to a degree. Players to log that many touches in a season over the past 10 years (Henry, McCaffrey, Bell, DeMarco Murray) either fared far worse the following year or, in Bell’s case, skipped the next season.
With Jacobs not the same threat out of the backfield McCaffrey, Barkley or Alvin Kamara are, a top-market pact will be hard for the fifth-year vet to secure. With McDaniels previously expressing support for the Jon Gruden-era draftee, will be interesting to see what numbers come out of these talks.
Tony Pollard, Cowboys; tag price: $10.1MM
The Cowboys are certainly unafraid to unholster their franchise tag, having used it in each of the past six years. In addition to keeping Pollard away from free agency, Dallas tagged Dalton Schultz, Dak Prescott and DeMarcus Lawrence in that span. With Prescott and Lawrence being tagged twice and Schultz leaving after his tagged season, the Cowboys have been fine letting players carry tag figures into seasons. Considering Pollard’s is the lowest cap hit among Dallas’ recent tags, the team is likely OK with the $10MM number staying on its books this year.
Pollard, 26, presents perhaps a more interesting case for a mid-2020s ascent compared to the Giants and Raiders backs. He has taken just 510 handoffs as a pro — Barkley sits at 954, Jacobs at 1,072 — and offers pass-game explosiveness that helped lead Dallas to drop Ezekiel Elliott.
The six-year, $90MM Elliott extension did not age well for the Cowboys, who are eating $11MM-plus in dead money over the next two years after the post-June 1 cut designation. But Elliott also accumulated more mileage (868 carries) before signing that extension. Pollard’s rookie-contract usage rate and skillset point to a promising late-20s stretch. Although Elliott’s deal helped spread out his cap hits, the Cowboys are eyeing a shorter-term Pollard pact.
As a former fourth-round pick, Pollard was smart to sign his tender and secure the guaranteed salary. Coming off a season in which he totaled 1,378 scrimmage yards and 12 touchdowns, the Memphis alum’s arrow is pointing up. The Cowboys can look at the deal the Packers gave dual-threat back Aaron Jones in 2021 (four years, $48MM) as an example of a good contract for a multipurpose back. The organization’s history with re-tagging players should also point to Pollard aiming for $22MM-plus in guarantees, but with no back earning between $7MM and $12MM on average, both Pollard and the team have interesting decisions to make in the coming days. Unlike Schultz’s 2022 tag period, however, updates have been scarce regarding Pollard talks.
Optimism Exists Giants, Saquon Barkley Will Reach Extension Agreement
Less than two weeks now remain until the deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign extensions. Barring an agreement by 3pm CT on July 17, Saquon Barkley will be back in a contract year.
The Giants have their five-year starting running back tied to a $10.1MM franchise tag salary. Not coming to an agreement soon would force the injury-prone Barkley to prove himself yet again and miss out on using an upcoming age-26 season as a negotiating point. Conversely, the Giants reaching a deal would drop Barkley’s 2023 cap number and put a key matter to rest with their most popular player.
Barkley has voiced issues with the news coming out of his extension talks, but the latest offering provides some hope a resolution is near. Some level of optimism exists this process will end in a deal, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler said during a SportsCenter appearance (h/t Giants Wire’s John Fennelly). Giants ownership also still views Barkley as a “centerpiece-type player” for the team, Fowler adds. That might be a key component of these long-running negotiations, which started last November.
The Joe Schoen–Brian Daboll regime inherited Barkley, whom Dave Gettleman drafted second overall in 2018. John Mara and Steve Tisch, of course, were present when Barkley emerged from Penn State as one of the best running back prospects in modern NFL history. The 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year, Barkley has been the face of the Giants’ franchise since Eli Manning retired. Although injuries have intervened, the New Jersey native bounced back last season to lead a shorthanded offense to the playoffs. That effort led to a Daniel Jones $40MM-per-year extension and Barkley being kept off the market via the tag, leading to some acrimony.
Barkley’s 1,650 scrimmage yards last season did not top his rookie-year mark (2,028), but only Tiki Barber and Joe Morris have topped the 2022 number in team history. While the Giants have added key pieces at tight end (Darren Waller) and wide receiver this offseason, Barkley will still serve as the team’s skill-position anchor — with or without an extension — this season.
Barkley’s options are limited if he cannot come to an agreement by July 17. He referenced Le’Veon Bell‘s skipped 2018 season, and a recent report indicated the veteran back could stay away from training camp. But come Week 1, Barkley would see missed game checks begin to pile up. This is probably a bigger issue for Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard, considering Barkley’s nearly $40MM earned as a pro, and the Raiders back looks to be using the threat of missed games in his negotiation. It would still surprise if Barkley were not with the team by Week 1, but it is certainly understandable he would use every weapon at his disposal as talks transpire during a bleak offseason for running backs.
These Giants-Barkley talks have hinged on guarantees, and Fowler adds the two-time Pro Bowler wants a better contract structure. The two offers Barkley turned down — of them being north of $13MM per year — were not believed to have presented strong guarantees. Besides Bijan Robinson‘s $21MM-plus in guarantees at the No. 8 draft slot, only Christian McCaffrey ($30.1MM) and Derrick Henry ($25.5MM) are tied to deals including more than $20MM locked in. With a 2024 Barkley tag price checking in at $12.12MM, the dual-threat back almost definitely wants at least a $22MM guarantee to cover the two tags.
The Henry deal led to a second rushing title and a strong 2022 season, while McCaffrey played a lead role in the 49ers’ 12-game win streak. Injuries intervened for both on their second contracts, and Barkley missed chunks of the 2019-21 seasons due to maladies (most notably a torn ACL in 2020). Barkley’s injury history has undoubtedly come up during extension talks, but he stayed healthy last year. How the Giants proceed here will be a key chapter in one of the most eventful offseasons at the running back position.
Giants Still In Talks With Saquon Barkley
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.
Giants’ Saquon Barkley A Threat To Skip Training Camp
The Giants now have less than a month to hammer out an extension with Saquon Barkley. With the Giants having pulled their offer and Barkley having expressed frustration at the leaks coming from the team’s side, this process has traversed a rocky path for a while.
Barkley remains hopeful for a long-term deal, noting the time still remaining between now and this year’s deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign extensions (July 17), but word out of Giants headquarters is they would be content letting their two-time Pro Bowl back play this season on the $10.9MM tag. While it will be interesting to see which side blinks, Barkley looks to be making preparations in the event no deal comes together.
Franchise-tagged players are not subject to fines for missing training camp, and ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler said during a recent SportsCenter appearance (h/t Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiari) Barkley is “a real threat” to skip camp. This tactic would be both aimed at avoiding the extra work come July and August, while penalizing the Giants — via services withheld — for not completing a deal by the deadline.
When the Steelers tagged Le’Veon Bell the first time (2017), he skipped training camp and reported September 1. Bell did start the season slowly, by his standards at the time, but finished with his second first-team All-Pro honor. No backs received the tag from 2019-22, leaving Barkley and Josh Jacobs as the only candidates to skip camp free of penalty since Bell. (Tony Pollard signed his Cowboys tender in March.)
What Bell did the following year generated far more attention. Barkley has referenced skipping the season, as Bell did in 2018 in protest of being tagged a second time, as a viable option. Bell has since expressed regret for doing this. Although Bell prevented a major injury affecting his 2019 market (when he scored $27MM fully guaranteed from the Jets), he missed out on $14.5MM by not signing his franchise tender. Bell is the only player to skip a season on the tag since the 1990s, when defensive linemen Sean Gilbert (1997) and Dan Williams (1998) did so. The salaries they passed on paled in comparison Bell’s, and the ex-Steeler great remains the poster boy for this rare course of action.
Barkley should not be considered likely to take this route, though he is in a better financial position than Bell was in 2018 or his 2023 tagged RB peers are. Barkley being chosen second overall locked in $31.2MM. The Giants exercised his fifth-year option ($7.2MM), putting the former Offensive Rookie of the Year near $40MM in career earnings. If a back were to try the Bell move, Barkley is positioned as well as anyone has been since the 2011 CBA reshaped rookie contracts. Taking this route would mean punting on $10.9MM and skipping an age-26 season. Seeing as Barkley’s prime is unlikely to last too much longer, this will be a valuable year.
The Giants are not introducing a new offense, with OC/play-caller Mike Kafka not being hired in this year’s cycle. The prospect of missing their starting back during camp and the preseason would not be especially damaging, with the looming threat of missed game checks hanging over Barkley in the event he tries to extend his absence into the regular season. That said, Barkley remains New York’s top skill-position player and occupies that role for a team without a top-flight quarterback. The Giants are thin behind Barkley, rostering Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell and fifth-round rookie Eric Gray. They could also bring in a veteran insurance option. A number of accomplished backs remain unsigned, but signing a starter-caliber veteran after failing to come to terms with Barkley by July 17 also runs the risk of Joe Schoen and Co. alienating the locker room.
Guarantees remain a key issue in this Giants-Barkley standoff, and while deadlines spur action, the low tag price and this year’s running back market not taking off did not do anything to convince the team to put its $13MM-AAV offer back on the table. This keeps Barkley in a tough spot at a pivotal career point. These negotiations continue to represent a prime storyline during an offseason in which the running back position has absorbed some significant blows.
Guarantees Remain Issue In Saquon Barkley-Giants Negotiations
The franchise tag deadline annually produces a run of headlines before the pivotal July date. This year’s lead tag story will be Saquon Barkley‘s status with the Giants. After expressing frustration with being tagged, Barkley has until July 17 to sign a long-term extension. No deal by that date tables any negotiations until 2024.
New York pulled its top proposal to Barkley after tagging him in March. That offer was said to be worth in the $13MM-per-year neighborhood. The Giants have not put that $13MM-AAV term back on the table, the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard notes.
Regarding the two known offers the Giants have made — one north of $12MM on average from November and the $13MM-AAV proposal from earlier this year — Leonard adds these were not high on guarantees. Indicating he would not sign his franchise tender this week, Barkley voiced frustration about the leaks from the Giants’ side regarding the offers he rejected.
Barkley’s guarantee baseline may be in the $22MM range, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan notes, as it would match the cost of playing on the tag this year and being re-tagged in 2024 (video link). Only two veteran backs — Christian McCaffrey ($30.1MM) and Derrick Henry ($25.5MM) — are attached to deals including more than $18MM fully guaranteed. Barkley’s initial NFL contract — from his No. 2 draft slot — once stood atop the position for guaranteed cash ($31.2MM). While Barkley has made nearly $40MM thanks to that deal and his 2022 fifth-year option, he does not have too many more prime seasons to parlay into a multiyear guarantee.
The Giants are believed to be OK with Barkley playing on the tag, despite the $10.9MM cap hold. Barkley, 26, joined Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard in being cuffed this year. That took the top three backs off the market, but a host of starter-level backs still hit free agency. The buyer’s market, as expected, produced a host of mid- and low-level contracts. Barkley argued this year’s running back market — which saw Miles Sanders‘ $6.4MM-per-year Panthers deal (11th in RB AAV) lead the way — is not a true reflection of the position’s value, since the franchise-tagged heavy hitters would have commanded more.
“I think the biggest thing is being patient, being open to listen and understanding what the market is,” Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown said, via NJ.com’s Bob Brookover. “The market surplus and scarcity dictates a lot on how you make decisions and also being able to agree to disagree at times and being able to get back to the table.”
Said surplus now includes Dalvin Cook, whom the Vikings finally cut last week. It remains highly unlikely the Giants would rescind Barkley’s tag to sign Cook, as that would go over poorly in the locker room given the former’s contributions to last year’s playoff-bound team. Barkley bounced back from three injury-plagued seasons to lead a Giants team low on reliable pass catchers to the postseason.
Giants hesitation regarding a top-flight guarantee is also understandable, with Barkley having suffered a high ankle sprain in 2019, an ACL tear in 2020 and another ankle injury in 2021. Barkley missed 21 games during that span. Barkley acknowledged his injury past when he said in January he was not asking to set the market at running back, but while this position’s value continues to dip across the NFL, the Giants are preparing to build around a quarterback (Daniel Jones) who submitted uneven rookie-contract work. Barkley remains a pivotal part of this plan.
As of late May, no deal was close. The team, however, came to terms with Jones minutes before the March franchise tag deadline, allowing for the Barkley tag. Negotiations with tagged players regularly run up to the July extension deadline.
“I think they’re open to talking,” Barkley said. “I’m open to talking. I think at the end of the day, if you really break it down and look at it as a whole, there is no rush. There is still time on the table to get to July 17. July 17 is not tomorrow. Maybe that is the naïve way to look at it. I could be completely wrong. But for me, that’s how I look at it. I trust in the Giants that we could get something done.”
Although Barkley has banked far more than Le’Veon Bell did when he sat out the 2018 season in protest of the tag, Fox Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano notes the Giants are not concerned he will follow the ex-Steeler’s lead by skipping a season. That would cost him the $10.9MM tag salary and his age-26 season. It is not expected the Giants will raise their offer from March, but it will be interesting to see how the guarantees look in Big Blue’s final proposal before next month’s deadline.
Saquon Barkley To Skip Giants’ Minicamp
At the conclusion of his Youth Football Camp in Jersey City today, Giants running back Saquon Barkley confirmed that he will not be attending the team’s mandatory minicamp this week, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Barkley’s time away from the Giants continues as he still hasn’t signed his franchise tender. 
New York chose Barkley to franchise tag at the last second but claimed that it had full intentions of extending the veteran running back’s contract, with the tag serving as a backup plan in case negotiations failed. Barkley made it clear very early that he had no intention of signing his franchise tender before the team’s offseason program. This was news but nothing groundbreaking, considering he wouldn’t incur any fines for skipping the voluntary offseason workouts.
Waiting to sign franchise tenders is nothing new, as the tag is often viewed as a last-ditch option to retain a player if an extension can’t be reached. Waiting to sign also protects the tagged player from receiving fines for holding out from minicamp. A player like Tony Pollard, who signed his franchise tender back in March, would be subject to fines for missing minicamp, while Barkley can continue to hold out without penalty until the regular season begins, like Le’Veon Bell did years ago.
Speaking of Bell, Barkley hasn’t ruled out such a holdout. He seems intent on pushing the Giants at least until the last second. When asked about the potential of playing the season out on the franchise tag, he refused to acknowledge that he’s even considered it, telling the media he “would make those decisions or start thinking about that” when the deadline comes mid-July, according to Andrew Crane of the New York Post.
He didn’t nearly seem optimistic that things would be handled by July 17. According to another report by Crane, when asked if the deal would be handled by then, he took a long pause before replying, “I don’t know really. I don’t know.” In fact, he even said that sitting out the 2023 NFL season was an option he could use as “a card (he) could play,” according to Pat Leonard of New York Daily News. It has become clear that this situation has the potential to turn ugly in New York as the two sides continue to negotiate at an impasse.
Barkley’s statement today wasn’t necessarily an announcement of an incoming holdout, though. It seemed to be more of an attempt to state his side of the story. He made sure to inform that he had no intention of resetting the running back market. He has reportedly turned down deals with annual average values of $12.5MM and $13MM. Only Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey have contracts averaging more per year, but they are making $15MM and $16.02MM, respectively.
Barkley also used the media session as an opportunity to air some of his frustrations about the situation. He strongly implied that he felt disrespected by the organization throughout the contract standoff. He claimed that the team’s front office had been “misleading” with “untruthful” leaks that “make (him) look like (he’s) greedy.” He didn’t name general manager Joe Schoen, specifically, but Schoen was the one who publicly made known the above offers that were rejected.
Barkley has asserted that his feelings weren’t hurt by being tagged. He even understands that, in the harsh business world of the NFL, the Giants have all the leverage in negotiating. But the way the team’s front office has handled the situation seems to be rubbing him the wrong way. There doesn’t appear to be any irreparable damage, though. Much like the Lamar Jackson situation, it seems Barkley has been able to separate his business with the front office from the relationships with his teammates and coaches.
It’s unclear how much longer this will go on, but we now know it won’t be over by the opening of minicamp. Barkley is firmly standing his ground for what he feels he deserves. Whether or not that will preclude him from playing in the 2023 NFL season has yet to be determined.
Latest On Giants’ Saquon Barkley Talks
Not much has taken place between the Giants and Saquon Barkley since the draft. The franchise-tagged running back has until July 17 to come to an agreement on a multi-year extension. 
Doing so would lock in the Giants’ most productive offensive player from last season, but the risks of a big-ticket contract compared to the $10.1MM franchise tag are something the team has been weighing all offseason. Their top offer to date has been worth roughly $13MM per season, a figure which would rank third in the league amongst running backs.
However, New York pulled that offer, and it remains very much in doubt whether they will be willing to submit one of similar value given the position’s current landscape. The free agent market saw several short-term, low-cost contracts handed out to the running backs who weren’t tagged, hurting Barkley’s leverage if he were aiming to cite the overall marketplace during negotiations. His importance to the Giants, though, remains unquestionable.
The 26-year-old ran for a career-high 1,312 yards in 2022, a year in which he was able to remain healthy. Barkley was the focal point of New York’s offense en route to their surprising success, and should once again carry a heavy workload in 2023 despite the team’s investments in quarterback Daniel Jones and an improved group of pass-catchers. However, Barkley talks are not currently being addressed with much urgency.
Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post notes that the parties remain “no closer than ever” with respect to hammering out a new deal. Perhaps the top sticking point in this situation, he adds, is the matter of guarantees. No hard figures in that regard have emerged to date on any of the Giants’ offers, nor the degree to which they fall short of what the Penn State alum might be seeking.
Playing on the tag this year and next would see Barkley earn $22.2MM; franchise tags are fully guranteed. That figure thus represents a logical baseline for guarantees in any hypothetical, multi-year extension. Only two backs – Christian McCaffrey and Derrick Henry – received more than $22MM in total guarantees on their current deals, so making such a commitment (albeit likely in the first two or three years of a longer contract) would be quite signficant on the Giants’ part.
Plenty of time still remains until the deadline for Barkley to either agree to a new offer or sign his tag. With no active dialogue taking place, though, plenty of progress will need to be made in the coming weeks to sort out his future beyond 2023.
Giants GM Joe Schoen On Contract Talks With Saquon Barkley, Dexter Lawrence
APRIL 30: As expected, the Giants and Barkley will resume contract talks now that the draft is over, as Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com writes. The two sides did, in fact, touch base last week and will now attempt to find some middle ground on a long-term accord. Big Blue selected a running back, Oklahoma’s Eric Gray, in the fifth round, but as Schwartz notes, Schoen told Barkley before the draft of his intention to pick up a mid-round RB so that Barkley would not be blindsided.
APRIL 23: The Giants have two standouts who have stayed away from the start of the club’s offseason program: DT Dexter Lawrence and RB Saquon Barkley. As Paul Schwartz of the New York Post observes, GM Joe Schoen is taking a markedly different approach in his negotiations with those two players.
With respect to Barkley, negotiations are non-existent at this time. The Giants have until July 17 to work out a long-term deal with Barkley, who was slapped with the franchise tag in March and who has yet to sign the franchise tender, worth $10.1MM. Obviously, there is still plenty of time for player and team to strike an accord that will keep Barkley under club control for the next few seasons, and discussions may resume once this week’s draft has concluded. Still, Schoen’s tone in his comments on the two-time Pro Bowler is noteworthy.
When asked if he is optimistic that Barkley will suit up for the start of the 2023 season, Schoen said, “you have to ask him. I’m not sure. I don’t know what his plan is.”
The Giants offered Barkley a multiyear contract worth $13MM per year in advance of the franchise tag deadline, though the guarantee and cash flow components of New York’s proposals have never been reported. And, while Barkley has said that he is not necessarily seeking to better Christian McCaffrey‘s $16MM AAV — the top mark among running backs — it has also been reported that he wants to at least be in that ballpark.
Clearly, there is a gap between the two sides, and it is unclear how wide that gap is. The suppressed RB market is hurting Barkley, who may ultimately have to do more compromising than the Giants if he wants to avoid playing the 2023 campaign on the tag. Of course, he could simply choose to not sign his tender and sit out the season, though that tactic ultimately proved to be the wrong choice for the last player to try it, Le’Veon Bell.
Schoen said that he has not spoken to Barkley’s camp in three or four weeks. “When we had the conversations with Saquon it was known we were going to get to a certain point and then we were gonna move on and regroup at some other time,” the second-year GM said. Schoen added that the Barkley situation will not influence his decision to select or not select a running back in the draft.
Lawrence, meanwhile, is presently scheduled to play out the 2023 season on the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, which will pay him $12.4MM. Reports last month indicated that progress was being made on an extension, and Schoen confirmed that there continues to be productive dialogue with Lawrence’s representation. Schwartz indicated that Lawrence is targeting a four-year pact worth $22MM per season.
In 2022, Lawrence set career-highs in tackles (68), sacks (7.5), and QB hits (28) en route to Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro acclaim. Pro Football Focus ranked Lawrence second among 127 qualifying interior defenders, and he earned position-best marks for his run defense and pass rushing.
Saquon Barkley Will Not Sign Franchise Tender Before Giants’ Offseason Program
Saquon Barkley should not be expected back with the Giants anytime soon. The franchise-tagged running back has engaged in off-and-on extension talks with the Giants since November, but the team hammered out a Daniel Jones deal prior to the tag deadline.
The Giants using the tag on Barkley with minutes to spare before last month’s deadline allowed them to retain both their quarterback and running back, but the player without the long-term contract should now be expected to stay away. Although Barkley’s $10.1MM tag salary will be locked in when he signs the tender, Newsday’s Kim Jones notes the Pro Bowl running back will not do so ahead of the team’s offseason program (Twitter link).
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Brian Daboll‘s team will convene Monday for the start of offseason workouts. Players cannot be fined for missing this stage of the offseason, though teams generally have good attendance for the non-mandatory portion of spring work. Minicamp represents the first point in which players would incur fines by not attending. Until Barkley signs his tender, he can steer clear of minicamp free of fines. It would certainly not surprise if the sixth-year back follows that path.
Franchise-tagged players regularly wait on signing their tenders, though Tony Pollard signed his $10.1MM Cowboys tag last month. Pollard can be fined for not attending Dallas’ minicamp. Barkley, Josh Jacobs, Evan Engram and Lamar Jackson are exempt from fines. The Commanders already agreed to an extension with Daron Payne, removing the sixth-year defensive tackle from the tag contingent.
The Giants offered Barkley a deal in the $12.5MM-per-year neighborhood last season and upped it to the $13MM-AAV range this offseason. While Barkley holding out for a deal on the Christian McCaffrey–Alvin Kamara deal makes sense, seeing as those contracts were agreed to back in 2020 on a lower salary cap, this year’s running back market did not do him any favors. None of this year’s free agents signed a deal that ranked in the top 10 at the position. Barkley is better than the backs who hit the market this year, but the Giants should not be considered likely to raise Barkley’s offer by much more — if at all — ahead of the July 17 deadline for tagged players to sign extensions.
It does not sound like too much urgency exists on the team’s part, with ESPN.com’s Jordan Raanan noting (via Twitter) the Giants are not overly motivated to reach an agreement right now. The Giants pulled the $13MM-AAV offer after franchise-tagging the former Offensive Rookie of the Year. Barkley, 26, attended player-organized workouts with teammates last week in Arizona, The Athletic’s Dan Duggan tweets. By not signing his tender, the injury-prone back does run the risk of seeing an injury lead to the Giants rescinding the tag. But Barkley may be attempting to stay away as a last-ditch leverage play. Though, his leverage is limited.
Seeing Barkley’s cap number reduced would benefit the Giants, however, as they have Dexter Lawrence entering a contract year as well. The Giants’ $2.3MM in cap space ranks 30th in mid-April. They will need more to sign draft choices, though restructures can help on that end as well. The team also has Leonard Williams tied to a whopping $32.3MM cap number, which can be reduced via an extension. Big Blue, which was eyeing an incentive-laden deal with now-Ravens wideout Odell Beckham Jr., will be set to carry the Barkley and Williams cap numbers to start its offseason program.
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MARCH 30: After making that $12.5MM-per-year offer during the season, the Giants upped it to $13MM ahead of the franchise tag deadline, Dan Duggan of The Athletic notes (subscription required). With the Cowboys cutting Ezekiel Elliott, a $13MM-AAV deal would rank third among running backs — between the Christian McCaffrey–Alvin Kamara tier and the glut of deals in the $12MM-per-year neighborhood. Schoen and Mara would like to finalize a deal, but the sides may need to work their way back to this price point, as nothing is imminent.
MARCH 28: The Giants were able to beat the franchise tag deadline with minutes to spare and sign quarterback Daniel Jones to a long-term deal. Doing so allowed them to place the franchise tag on running back Saquon Barkley, which guarantees he will remain in New York for 2023, but leaves his future beyond that point in doubt.
Barkley, 26, is set to earn $10.1MM this season if he plays on the tag. He and the Giants have until mid-July to reach an agreement on a multi-year extension, but the market hasn’t lent itself to big-money accords for running backs so far. In light of that, it remains to be seen if progress will be made in the coming weeks to re-engage in contract talks.
“There’s no outstanding offer right now,” Giants GM Joe Schoen said at the league meetings, via ESPN’s Dan Graziano. “Once we put the franchise tag on him, we stepped back. We knew throughout the negotiation that there was going to be a time where, if we couldn’t come to an agreement, we were going to go to the franchise tag, and that’s what we did.”
New York initially saw the former No. 2 pick as the higher priority for a new deal, but later turned their attention to working out an extension with Jones. The Giants have reportedly been willing to reach the $12.5MM-per-year mark with Barkley, but in-season negotiations didn’t yield much in the way of traction for an extension; it came out earlier this month that an increased offer was unlikely. Even though they appeared prepared to let the Penn State alum hit the open market this year, it remains the team’s goal to keep Barkley in the fold for years to come.
“I told Saquon we want him to be a Giant for his entire career,” owner John Mara said. “The running back market is what it is right now, but I’m still hopeful at some point we will come to an agreement… I told him how much I wanted him to be a Giant and to play his whole career as a Giant… And I think he would like that as well.”
Mara also acknowledged, to no surprise, that Barkley is unhappy with having been tagged. His compensation, if he plays on the tag in 2023, will put him in a tie for eighth (with fellow tag recipients Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard) amongst RBs in terms of annual value. Earlier in the negotiation process, Barkley was said to not be eyeing a market-resetting deal even after he delivered a career-high 1,312 rushing yards as the focal point of the Giants’ offense in 2022. A new accord moving him into the top-five at the position would not be a surprising target, however.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll noted that he has not been in communication with Barkley for two weeks, and that he remains uncertain if the latter will report to voluntary OTAs next month (Twitter link via Dan Duggan of The Athletic). Barkley’s actions in the near future will increasingly become a storyline worth following if the offseason drags on without progress being made on an extension.