You think things between Saquon Barkley and Giants are dicey now?
Giants running back Saquon Barkley works out before a game against the Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Dec 11, 2022. Credit: Brad Penner
Getting along without Saquon Barkley in the mix these days is pretty easy.
The Giants are chugging along in their offseason program, a series of workouts that Brian Daboll said are more about teaching and learning than actual plays on the field. They have a chance to evaluate some other players while their running back is not participating in OTAs and such. And somewhere, off on his own, away from the team, it’s not as if Barkley is lolling around guzzling Mountain Dews. He is doing his own workouts to get physically prepared for the upcoming season.
His absence during this voluntary portion of the calendar is certainly noteworthy but definitely not a crisis situation.
Interestingly, it’s when Barkley rejoins the team — and the circumstances under which that happens — when things may be at their most dicey.
That’ll be especially true if the terms of his eventual arrival in East Rutherford wind up being what has always been the most likely outcome of his on-again, off-again negotiations with the Giants: His playing the 2023 season on the one-year, $10.1 million franchise tag.
It’s at that point the relationship between the organization and its star player (not to mention top citizen and most recognizable and marketable face in the building) may be at its most fraught. Barkley will be disappointed, the Giants will be disappointed, and they’ll have to try to bury those emotions for the sake of the 17 games on their schedule.
The reunion will be more tenuous than the separation.
That’s why, while general manager Joe Schoen is hard-lining the emotionless contract talks with Barkley and his agent, the rest of the organization seems to be going out of its way to make sure Barkley knows where he stands with them in a non-fiduciary sense.
“That situation is going to be between Saquon and the organization,” Daboll said with an unsolicited remark before Thursday’s OTA practice, the coach clearly trying to distance himself from the bad cops in management. Daboll is the bro-hugging, face-timing patriarch of the Giants’ on-field crew and it’s important he remain that way with the running back who figures to be his best player this coming season.
Daboll has been part of staffs in the past where contract rifts have temporarily soiled the good will between a player and a team to the point of offseason holdouts or other assorted strategies in the toolboxes of the disgruntled. He also knows, more often than not, things eventually work out between the two sides.
That’s certainly been the case for the Giants who, quite frankly, haven’t had many players good enough to warrant such standoffs in recent years, but went through similar situations when Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Plaxico Burress were all in the midst of contract dramas.
When the resolution comes in the form of a new or improved deal, it’s easy for the player to stride back in the locker room and return to their previous status, perhaps a little bit richer, but certainly having made his point. If Barkley signs a long-term deal in the next month and a half, he’ll be able to do that himself.
But if Barkley has to sign the franchise tag, he probably won’t be skipping back through the doors. There will be hurt feelings. The Giants have already disappointed Barkley by using the tag in the first place. If they essentially force him to play on it in 2023 — with the potential to do it again in 2024, by the way — it could leave a scar between the two sides that never quite goes away.
There was a bit of a buzz at Thursday’s practice as, across the parking lot at MetLife Stadium, a few dozen tractor trailers unloaded the gear that was assembled to become the staging for the Taylor Swift concerts this weekend.
The Giants need to be careful that whatever happens with Barkley next does not become the first stanza to a Swift-like breakup ballad.
That’s why Daboll and others have been trying to solidify the fence before it needs mending, making sure Barkley is in their loops as much as he can be without actually having him part of the team at this point, softening his eventual landing spot.
“I think you build relationships with people in the business,” Daboll said. “There's always a business side of things in this league and again, those conversations will remain private, but the guys on the team that you have, everybody goes through it at some point, and you just build on relationships and keep discussions private between yourself and the players.”
Barkley did participate in the non-team-sanctioned passing camp quarterback Daniel Jones held last month in Arizona for 20 or so players (Barkley has been training in that state).
“Saquon's a big part of what we've done here,” Jones said. “He's been a great teammate to everybody in the locker room. I think that says a lot about him as a guy.”
Jones said he has maintained contact with Barkley even as they prepare for the upcoming season on opposite sides of the continent.
“I talk to him pretty regularly,” Jones said.
To be clear, there are no villains in this scenario.
The Giants are doing what they are supposed to do to protect their interests and are using the tag in a way that is allotted to them under the collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA. Barkley, too, is well within his rights to not sign that tag until it becomes absolutely necessary, certainly not until after the July 17 deadline for the two sides to negotiate a longer-term deal, and maybe right up until the few days before the regular season opens. (Get ready for the Summer of Matt Breida, by the way!). And it’s not as if Barkley is AWOL. Until he signs either a new contract or the tag he’s not even allowed to come to the facility to work out or be around the guys.
At some point, though, he will ink something, either happily or grudgingly. And barring a decision to not play at all this coming season, which certainly does not fit what we know of him, Barkley will be on the field for the Giants in September, either happily or grudgingly.
If it winds up being in the latter of those moods, Taylor Swift should return to New Jersey with her own pen at the ready. She may have her next big hit.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
