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Giants GM Joe Schoen Had a Classy Message for Saquon Barkley
The New York Giants are currently preparing to make the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Meanwhile, their former star running back Saquon Barkley is celebrating winning Super Bowl LIX with the Philadelphia Eagles.
At the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Giants general manager Joe Schoen was asked about Barkley and had something really nice to say about the player New York once took with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft. Clearly, there are no hard feelings from the Giants' side.
"I'm happy for Saquon," Shoen said. "Obviously he went on to win the Super Bowl and we wish him nothing but the best. Always going to evaluate all the decisions you make and we were at a different place in our build. Again, love Saquon and wish him nothing but the best."
"I'm happy for Saquon, obviously he went on to win the Super Bowl and we wish him nothing but the best. We were at a different place in our build."
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) February 25, 2025
- Joe Schoen on Saquon Barkley pic.twitter.com/wgJaQgGKuc
While it's probably true that Barkley's success in Philly isn't keeping Shoen up at night and the neither Barkley or the Giants would have reached the same heights as the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles if the running back had stayed in New York, this is just going to keep haunting the Giants GM forever.
It's not that he let a good player get away because that happens all the time. It's not that he went to a division rival and found immediate success. It's not that Barkley had one of the greatest seasons in football history.
It's that the moment Shoen made the case to his boss that they should let him go. the NFL had a film crew there capturing it in 4K for HBO's Hard Knocks: Offseason. That clip is never going away and no one will ever forget it. So Shoen needs to load up on classy quotes because this is going to follow him around forever.
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.