Giants Want Saquon Barkley Back Longterm, But...
New York Giants co-owner John Mara, briefly speaking to reporters at the annual league meetings being held this week in Phoenix, Arizona, expressed hope that running back Saquon Barkley will remain a Giant for life.
“My dream is that he plays his whole career as a Giant like Eli (Manning) did, like (Michael) Strahan did, like Tiki (Barber) did,” said Mara, per GIants.com. “I mentioned to him, ‘Look what they’re doing off the field now.’ I think he would like that as well.
“We’d love to have him. He provides leadership. He’s a great player. We’d like to get something done with him at some point.”
That said, Mara is not oblivious to the current running back market, nor did he sound willing to throw open the doors to the vault to make that happen.
"You certainly are aware of that, but he adds a lot to our team - not just as a running back," Mara said. "So, he is somebody that we want back. But there is a limit as to what we can do.
Barkley, who received the non-exclusive franchise tag that will pay him a guaranteed $10 million once he signs it, was predictably not happy with being tagged. The non-exclusive franchise tag would require any team signing Barkley to an offer sheet that if the Giants chose not to match two first-round draft picks--a hefty cost for a player that, albeit talented, does have an injury history.
"There's no outstanding offer right now," Schoen told the team's website. "Once we put the franchise tag on him, we stepped back. We knew that throughout the negotiation that if there was a time that we can't come to an agreement, we're going to go to the franchise tag. And that's what we did.
"When you're building a team, there are 53 players. You can't look at everybody in a silo. As you're going through negotiations and you can't come to an agreement on what the value of a player is, then you have to shift to plan B. And we knew we had the franchise tag as a tool."
Pat’s Take
While it might seem that the Giants are playing hardball with Barkley, one of their most popular players and someone held in high regard by the organization, such is the way of the NFL. Barkley, remember, turned down an offer made at the bye week that would have averaged $12.5 million per season, putting him in good company with the likes of Dalvin Cook, Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, and Joe Mixon.
With Zeke Elliott ($15 million per year) having been cut by the Cowboys, the only other two running backs currently averaging more than that $12-$12.5 million range are Alvin Kamara ($15 million/year) and Christian McCaffery ($16 million per year).
Barkley told reporters at the end of last season that he wasn’t looking to re-set the market for his position. Still, in trying to piece together what he might be looking for, it would seem he’s eyeing an annual payday closer to what Kamara is getting than what Cook, Chubb, Mixon, and Henry currently get.
If that’s the case, it sounds like Barkley and his representative, with whom Schoen said they last spoke three days ago, might have misjudged themarket. Miles Sanders signed this off-season with the Panthers on a deal averaging $7 million per year.
Add to that the very deep running backs class in this year’s draft, and Barkley has zero leverage to make a case for an average annual pay that puts him closer to Kamara/McCaffrey.
What will be interesting to see if things remain in limbo between Barkley and the Giants is whether the running back will skip the off-season program that begins April 17. Barkley, a team captain, has always been present for the off-season program, including the OTAs set to start a month later.
The risk with Barkley showing up is, of course, injury, which, if that were to happen, would put any further negotiations or chances of him getting a big contract on the shelf for this year. That said, the Giants did roll the dice on Barkley by picking up the option year of his rookie deal despite his coming off an ACL tear and a high ankle sprain that caused him to miss chunks of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Barkley has often spoken of his love for the game and being with his teammates, which was taken away from him while he was rehabbing from his injuries. Would he knowingly stay away to protest the franchise tag to work out on his own now that he’s healthy?
Stay tuned to find out.
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