One to two million dollars. That was the gap the New York Giants and Saquon Barkley couldn’t bridge after eight months of negotiations despite both sides insisting they desired to reach a long-term agreement.
Pride. Ego. Stubbornness. Hard feelings. Those factors prevented one last compromise from either side to achieve Barkley’s dream of being a “Giant for life.”
The final attempts to reach a deal came in July of 2023. When they failed to come to terms on a long-term contract, Barkley was required to play on the one-year franchise tag for $10.1 million.
A half-hearted threat of a holdout landed Barkley a revised deal with $909,000 in incentives before the start of training camp that was supposed to be a sign of goodwill. He didn’t come close to earning the incentives that were based on lofty personal production and team success.
The expectation last summer was that the sides would engage in another round of contentious negotiations this offseason. But then the 2023 season concluded, and there was no extension offer from the Giants before free agency. The Giants’ plan was to let Barkley test the market and consider matching his best offer if it fit within their budget.
The reality was once they told Barkley to test the market, he was gone. Especially when the Pennsylvania native received a lucrative offer from the Philadelphia Eagles.
As Barkley’s return to MetLife Stadium as a member of the archival Eagles approaches on Sunday, it’s worth revisiting how things unraveled with the Giants.
Here’s this morning’s live room if you missed it because the Jets insist on stealing the spotlight by making major moves every time we record: https://t.co/bTAnDCPkdR
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) October 15, 2024
The beginning of the end
The Giants selected Barkley with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, a misguided decision by former general manager Dave Gettleman who believed the running back could team with aging quarterback Eli Manning to resurrect the franchise. Gettleman described Barkley as a “gold jacket” player who was “touched by the hand of God.”
Barkley initially lived up to Gettleman’s hyperbolic expectations, leading the NFL with 2,028 scrimmage yards to win the offensive rookie of the year award. Then came the injuries.
Barkley was still a dynamic playmaker in his second season, but he missed three games with a high-ankle sprain. Then he tore his ACL in the second game of the 2020 season. That injury sapped his explosiveness in 2021, when he missed four more games with another ankle sprain.
General manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll were hired during the 2022 offseason. Gettleman had already exercised Barkley’s $7.2 million fifth-year option for the 2022 season, so Barkley faced a prove-it year with the new regime.
Barkley delivered by remaining healthy and setting a career-high with 1,312 rushing yards. He was the driving force of the fast start that propelled the team to an unexpected playoff berth.
Schoen adheres to positional value principles, so he certainly didn’t arrive in New York planning to make Barkley one of the league’s highest-paid running backs. But Barkley’s performance and the team’s success led Schoen to offer a multi-year extension during the Giants’ bye week midway through the 2022 season.
Barkley rejected a three-year offer believed to be worth $37.5 million during the bye week. That set the stage for the protracted, failed negotiations during the 2023 offseason.
The Giants reportedly increased their offer to $13 million per year early in the 2023 offseason, but Barkley again declined because the deal only included $19.5 million guaranteed. A team source said the Giants’ strongest offer before the franchise tag deadline included $23.5 million guaranteed. At that point, Barkley had his sights set on Christian McCaffrey’s market-setting contract with a $16 million annual salary.
Schoen was in a sticky spot because quarterback Daniel Jones, who had just delivered a virtuoso performance in the franchise’s first playoff win in 11 years, was also a free agent. In Schoen’s ideal world, he would have extended Barkley early so he’d have the franchise tag as leverage in negotiations with Jones.
At a stalemate with Barkley, Schoen shifted his focus to Jones. The sides agreed to a four-year, $160 million extension minutes before the franchise tag deadline in March 2023. The Giants immediately slapped the tag on Barkley, locking in both players for at least one more season.
In hindsight, it obviously would have been better if Schoen had budged on Barkley and tagged Jones. If the Giants had tagged Jones, they would have been able to move on with no strings attached after his disastrous 2023 season. Even a lucrative contract for Barkley would have been significantly cheaper with far smaller salary cap implications than Jones’ deal.
But it seems that Barkley driving a hard bargain created hard feelings with Schoen. The GM already had offered more than he preferred to a running back, and Barkley’s refusal to accept the Giants’ offer forced Schoen to cave in the Jones negotiations. Schoen took the rare step of pulling his outstanding offer to Barkley after the franchise tag deadline.
The scars from the negotiations were evident during “Hard Knocks” this offseason.
Schoen described how the emotionally “draining” experience took “10 years off my life.” He cracked to the team’s public relations staff at this year’s combine that, “I wanted to give (Barkley) a lot of money a year ago, and he didn’t want that. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
The animus went both ways. Barkley broke his silence on the negotiations at his youth football camp in Jersey City, N.J., in June of 2023. Barkley said he was “frustrated” by “misleading” leaks about the Giants’ offers that omitted important elements like guaranteed money.
“For those reports to come out and try to make me look like I’m greedy or whatever, that’s not even close to being the truth,” Barkley said.
With that as the backdrop, perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise the sides couldn’t bridge the relatively small gap that existed when they resumed negotiations before the July 2023 deadline for tagged players to sign extensions.
Schoen presented a reduced offer reportedly worth $33 million for three years with roughly $22 million guaranteed. Barkley again declined.
Guaranteed money is typically the most important factor in contract negotiations for the team and player, although that often gets overlooked amid the public’s fixation with average annual salaries. But it was mostly pointless for either side to dig in on the guarantees.
There was virtually zero chance the Giants would have cut Barkley after the first season of a three-year deal, so the first two years would have been effectively guaranteed. But neither side was willing to make the requisite concession on the guarantees, so no agreement was reached.
Barkley didn’t have the stomach for an extended holdout that would have been mutually destructive, so he showed up for the first day of training camp with a face-saving revised contract. He suffered another high-ankle sprain early last season that sidelined him for three games, and his production was limited by a dreadful supporting cast.
Still, Barkley showed his stripes as a leader. He played hard despite never being fully healthy after returning from the ankle injury in Week 6. And the five-time captain’s support of undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito went a long way toward preventing a delicate locker room from splintering after the Giants dropped to 2-8 with an embarrassing loss at Dallas.
A soap opera on reality TV
The franchise tag rules prevented the parties from re-engaging in negotiations on a long-term deal until after last season ended. When that time came, there was minimal communication.
As free agency approached, Schoen called Barkley. There was no offer presented. Instead, Schoen said the team would let Barkley test the open market and requested that he bring his best offer back to potentially be matched.
It was a smart move from Schoen’s perspective since he had no interest in paying Barkley top dollar. This approach conceivably left the door open for the Giants to retain a talented player on their terms if the market was cold for the 27-year-old.
But for Barkley, that strategy effectively ended any chance of a return to New York. Even if his market wasn’t as robust as expected, he wasn’t going to return to Schoen with his tail between his legs.
The hypothetical never unfolded because Barkley’s market was strong. The Eagles, Texans and Bears were the most aggressive suitors. The interest of the Giants’ division rival raised the stakes.
“I’m going to have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia,” co-owner John Mara told Schoen in a conversation at the start of free agency captured by “Hard Knocks.”
Schoen relayed that he had just received a text message that the Bears were driving the price up and that the Eagles were out of the running. Even Schoen seemed to realize that was wishful thinking, however, and Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million contract with $26 million guaranteed with the Eagles hours later.
Barkley’s gamble to decline the Giants’ offers last offseason paid off. He pocketed $10.1 million in 2023 and then added another $26 million guaranteed this offseason. Even if he had accepted the Giants’ strongest offer, he only would have earned $23.5 million guaranteed.
Barkley assumed risk by playing on the one-year deal last season, but he got more from the Eagles despite being a year older and missing more time due to injury. So Barkley didn’t misread his market last offseason. He misread the Giants’ willingness to overextend to sign Jones. And even with that miscalculation, Barkley was minutes away from hitting the open market off of a Pro Bowl season.
It’s fitting that so much of this soap opera played out on reality TV this summer, although as Barkley has said, a behind-the-scenes look at last offseason would have been juicier. This year, both sides were ready for a break.
Barkley got the contract he was seeking from an organization with Super Bowl aspirations. The Giants were able to reallocate their resources to better fit Schoen’s values.
The Giants’ more economical backfield has averaged just 4.0 yards per carry, but rookie fifth-round pick Tyrone Tracy Jr. has shown promise with 35 carries for 179 yards and one touchdown in two starts. Tracy has stepped in for injured veteran Devin Singletary, who signed a three-year, $16.5 million contract with $9.5 million guaranteed to replace Barkley.
Barkley has shown no signs of decline in Philadelphia, ranking third in the NFL in rushing yards per game behind a superior offensive line. He reached 21.66 mph on a 65-yard rushing touchdown in Week 3, which was his fastest speed since Week 17 of the 2019 season and the third fastest by a ball carrier this season.
SAQUON BARKLEY 65-YARD TOUCHDOWN.
📺: #PHIvsNO on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/830L0j9R8o— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024
‘Snakequon’ Barkley?
Barkley was instantly cast as a villain — dubbed “Snakequon” by Giants fans — when he left for the hated Eagles. And even he has admitted he didn’t properly handle his exit from the Giants. But the bitter feelings about the departure should subside toward the Giants’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee for the past two seasons.
Some fans will boo Barkley on Sunday, and that’s understandable. But those same fans should peer at the franchise’s Ring of Honor displayed around the stadium. Not every Giants great spent his entire career with the team. Mark Bavaro finished his career with the Eagles. Carl Banks played in Washington and Cleveland after New York.
Unlike those players, Barkley didn’t win in New York, so he’ll never join that class of franchise legends. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that Barkley gave everything he had to the Giants for six years, often standing out as the lone bright spot during dark times.
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Both sides made the best business decision this offseason. The personal feelings are still fresh. But those will diminish, and Barkley should eventually be appreciated for his time in New York.
(Photos by Greg Fiume and Al Bello/Getty Images)
