Giants RB Saquon Barkley's contract situation could get messy again
Saquon Barkley left the Giants’ facility on Monday not knowing when, or if, he’ll be back.
He said he did not seek clarity on his standing within the organization from general manager Joe Schoen.
Instead of exit meetings, Schoen had an open-door policy this year in which players could go to his office if they wanted to talk.
Barkley passed.
“I think we talked more than enough last year,” said Barkley, who did not come across as angry. Weary, perhaps.
“Not just talking with Joe. The whole negotiation.”
That negotiation led to Barkley playing on a one-year deal worth $10.1 million this season.
He added that he’s now leaving contract talks in the hands of his agents. Barkley is set to reach free agency unless he and the Giants come to an agreement. Last week, Barkley said he wanted the organization to “just shoot me straight.”
Schoen may have taken a step toward doing that on Monday, admitting that he won’t take using the franchise tag on Barkley for a second straight season off the table.
“Saquon and I will talk about that,” Schoen said. “That’s a tool we have at our disposal. That’s an option we have on the table. We’ll have that conversation. I’m not saying we will or we won’t. A lot of those conversations will be had over the next month or so.”
If the Giants tag Barkley again, it will cost them just over $12 million.
For Barkley, these are interesting times. He has said he wants to be a Giant for life, and that still seems to be true. He also seemed to tire of the continuing questions about his contract and the franchise tag.
It seems almost impossible that Barkley and the Giants will engage in an offseason-long dance over his contract again this year. Surely, there is an easier way to either find consensus or move on.
The Giants have another candidate for the franchise tag in safety Xavier McKinney, who is coming off an outstanding season in which he played every defensive snap.
Schoen also said the Giants will address the quarterback situation. Starter Daniel Jones had his 2023 season interrupted twice, once because of the second neck injury of his career after taking a hit in Miami. After he returned to the field, he tore an ACL in Las Vegas, ending his season.
“There’s a chance [Jones is] not ready Week 1,” Schoen said. “You got to sign somebody that you can hope — again, plan for the worst, hope for the best — like you plan for him not being ready, so you’re going to need somebody that can hopefully win you some games early on if he’s not ready.”
Asked if he has the same faith in Jones as he did when he signed him to a four-year, $160 million contract, Schoen answered with one word: yes.
Said Jones: “For me, I’m just focused on my rehab, making sure I do everything to get back healthy, get back on the field.”
The Giants underachieved this season, there is no denying that.
A year ago, Schoen and coach Brian Daboll were celebrated for making the playoffs and for winning a playoff game against the Vikings in Minnesota.
Compared to that, this season offered no real sense of progress (although, in the last week of the season, finally beating the Eagles under any circumstances had to feel good).
But these Giants ultimately could not overcome their bad start and one-sided defeats, two of which were particularly glaring: the 40-0 loss to Dallas in the season opener and the 24-3 loss to the Seahawks on a night when the Giants allowed a franchise-record 11 sacks.
“This year it didn’t go as well as we wanted it to, for various reasons,” Schoen said. “We’ve all got a hand in it. We’ve all got to do better going into next year and we will. That’s what this offseason is about.”
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.
