Giants' Saquon Barkley puts contract talk in past, puts focus on Cowboys
Saquon Barkley of the Giants celebrates his third-quarter touchdown run against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 26, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Saquon Barkley spoke to reporters Wednesday for the second time this summer.
The first was when he said he had “an epiphany” and decided to report on time to training camp.
It was Barkley who first mentioned the contract on Wednesday, saying, “For me, that’s all in the past.”
What is in the future for Barkley and the Giants is the start of the NFL season, when Dallas visits MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.
“It’s a tough team. It’s a great team,” Barkley said. “It’s always a tough challenge when you go against Dallas. We know how good the NFC East is and it’s important to get [off to] a fast start. That’s just how the season goes.”
Last year’s Giants defeated the Titans in coach Brian Daboll’s head-coaching debut and then went on a run, winning six of their first seven games.
“You see how helpful it was to us last year,” Barkley said at his locker Wednesday. “But it’s going to be a tough game, but I feel like we’ve got a great game plan. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and execute.”
For Barkley, this could feel like a different kind of season opener. While he was on the practice field through training camp with his teammates, he did not play a down in preseason. (He logged only four snaps in last year’s preseason, so that was not a big change.)
It’s been a while since he’s taken a hit.
Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka basically shrugged.
“I think Saquon got a good amount of work this training camp, especially being in pads as much as we were,” Kafka said. “Barkley’s a veteran guy, so I don’t think it’ll take him too long to get adjusted to that.”
Said coach Brian Daboll of Barkley: “I know his mindset, how he practices, how he prepares. So, he had a good camp. He’s ready to go.”
During the offseason contract strife — and many other times before and since — Barkley has trusted his college coach, Penn State’s James Franklin, for his honesty and his counsel.
The past days, weeks and months were no exception.
“I love the fact that he calls,” Franklin told Newsday on Wednesday afternoon. “People need people in their lives who love and care about them but want nothing from them. I never want Saquon to need anything. I’ll always want to talk to him and be around him from the perspective of love and respect.”
Asked about the advice that he’s given Barkley recently, Franklin said: “He’s always been a team-first guy. But I told him, this is your career. I can advise you, but you have to live with your decisions.”
Franklin also said to Barkley, “Show me an example of a running back who held out and it worked out.”
“I can’t think of one," Franklin said. "I try to see both perspectives. I try to tell him what I think a coach, general manager or owner is thinking. And I asked him, 'are you going to miss the $10 million plus dollars? Twenty years from now, you might not agree with that decision.' ”
Franklin also reinforced to Barkley the player, and person, that Barkley always has been.
“How do you create the most value for yourself going forward? Franklin asked. “From my lens, it’s by playing great and being a great teammate.”
Barkley “has never had an issue with either of those qualities,” Franklin said.
Barkley accepted all of Franklin’s counsel. And on Saturday night, Barkley and Micah Parsons were at Penn State’s season opener.
On Sunday night, they’ll again be on the same field.
Let the games begin.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
