Saquon Barkley‘s comeback season features the former Offensive Rookie of the Year sitting second in rushing yards as the Giants hit their bye week. The injury-prone running back has worked his way back onto the extension radar, and the Giants’ new regime appears onboard with a second Barkley contract.
After listening on Barkley trade interest this offseason, Giants GM Joe Schoen has spoken to the fifth-year running back about an extension.
“Saquon and I have a great relationship. I told him I’d like him to be here, and I think he’s in the same boat,” Schoen said during an appearance on WFAN’s Tiki & Tierney. “We’ll see if we can work something out here at some point.
“He’s a guy we’re gonna do our due diligence on. We’d like to keep him around here. We can get into the contract extension talks … decide a value for the player, where we see him and why, and then knowing we have the franchise tag as a tool in the toolbox.”
A Barkley extension emerged as a possibility last year, when the regime that drafted him was still at the controls, but died down after the Penn State product went down with an early-season ankle injury. Barkley did not establish much momentum in the weeks that followed, though just about no Giant did in a miserable finish to the 2021 campaign, and no extension buzz surfaced this offseason. Barkley, 25, was more closely connected to being moved.
We explored the prospect of a Barkley extension in September, but now that the former No. 2 overall pick has submitted more evidence of being back to his pre-ACL-tear version, the floor for an extension looks to have risen. Barkley sits second behind Nick Chubb in rushing yards (779) and ranks behind only Tyreek Hill in scrimmage yards (986). Then again, the running back market has not moved in a while. Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara and Ezekiel Elliott still reside atop this position group, AAV-wise, on deals from 2020 (CMC, Kamara) and 2019 (Zeke). Those big-money extensions — at or north of $15MM per year — have generated mixed returns as well.
Barkley’s value to the Giants, a stalled running back market, a crowded backfield class headed toward free agency and the salary cap disparity between 2020 ($198.2MM) and 2023 (perhaps north of $220MM) complicate a potential deal. So does Barkley’s injury history, which hovers over the rest of the dynamic back’s season as well. But if Schoen is correct in noting Barkley wants to stay in New York as well, the process could be easier.
If the Giants were to tag Barkley, it would not be too expensive. Last year, the running back tag came in at just $9.57MM. After battling through cap trouble this offseason, Big Blue’s new regime is projected to have at least $60MM in funds next year. Barkley is playing on a $7.23MM fifth-year option, but unlike most running backs, he came into the league with a monster payday. With the fifth-year option added to his bank account, Barkley will move beyond $38MM in career earnings at season’s end.
Daniel Jones‘ status could conceivably interfere with a Barkley tag, however. While both the franchise and transition tags are available to teams, only one can be used per offseason. Jones has been mentioned as a candidate for the seldom-used transition tag, which locks in a lesser amount but gives other teams more flexibility to negotiate with the player. Schoen said (via The Athletic’s Dan Duggan) the fourth-year quarterback is still being evaluated. A QB transition tag, projected at roughly $28MM, would be much more expensive than a running back franchise tag.
Jones’ improved play, with a bottom-tier receiving corps, further stands to complicate the Giants’ 2023 offseason. While Schoen is open to negotiating with players this week, Duggan adds, he does not wish to do so once the Giants’ bye wraps. That would table the Barkley and Jones matters to January. Two players who looked to be on the way out with the organization are suddenly back in the long-term picture, injecting more intrigue into the surprising team’s status.
Very happy for Saquon. He’s taken a lot of criticism from seemingly everyone. I’m from the Penn State area and although I don’t know Saquon I know a lot of people who do, and Ive never heard anything negative about him or his work ethic.
He’s never bad mouthed the Gettleman regime (though he had plenty of reason to). Just a solid team guy that is willing to play his role. The players that can overcome adversity are the ones that can lead you to championships.
Those deals have had mixed results? Every RB deal over 12 million dollars has been a disaster. Not one of those teams would do those deals again. I don’t know how they could possibly justify paying him more than the Jones/Henry deals.
I get the sense Barkley has that Frank Gore survival instinct. I’d be willing to take a chance on extending him.
Ordinarily, I’d agree to not over paying RBs. But when healthy, he’s a rare, franchise level game changer. You’ve got to pay a guy like that.
Second contracts for running backs are bad business. Doesn’t matter who it is. The fact that an extension is being discussed reveals a larger problem. After all the disappointment of the Gettleman era, the Giants went right out and found another GM who assured them that it really is still 1991 and the good old days will last forever. Ridiculous.
So you would let players like Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Emmitt Smith etc. walk rather than offer them an extension? Yikes!
So you also reside in 1991. Thanks for making my point.
And you don’t think any RBs that have played since 1991 will enter the HOF…double Yikes!
I have to admit, i am one that gave up on Saquon as i just saw him as injury prone and you get a couple of games out of him and expected him to get injured again. Kinda like how Thor and D’arnauld were with the NY Mets.
I do wish him all the best and i hope he keeps this up especially for the giants but in my opinion 12M a year is tough unless there is a games played incentive to get that high or even higher. How is this for a deal, 3/36 18 guaranteed 200k per game bonus and 2.6M spring training roster bonus with 5M guaranteed for injury.
Gives Saquon guaranteed money of 18M and protection for up 23M total if he gets hurts. Yet is not destroying the bank for the Giants but gives Saquon good money as a top rb
Sounds like a deal for the Giants, but any sane agent would tell him to walk. If they tag Jones, as many expect, he’ll have several teams bidding at least twice those numbers guaranteed. We’ve seen how insane other owners can be when trying to land free agents.
Definitely agree with you there is always one crazy team to go throw big dollars (Zeke for example) and agent of course will always tell their client they can get more. Look where that got michael conforto of the mets.
But but based on 2021 and 2022 comps it seems to be in line with it actually being better than the rest got. The closest was aaron jones and nick chubb which i believe are comparable rbs. He is getting more guaranteed regularly and practically than both even if only slightly.
He can use McCaffrey and Kamara as potential conversation starters but they are more involved in the passing game and being in the slot many times along with gadget plays than barkley giving them a higher ceiling and Zeke i think everyone knows that was a bad deal. Dalvin is the only other comparison but i cant see the giants going more than 3 maybe 4 years with him and cook got 5 (adjust higher obviously for guarantees and such if you go 4).
At 4 it would be 4/48 with 24 guaranteed and 31 /32 guarantee for injury which would make him 6th overall and 3rd in guaranteed which is where i would see him.
outside of a zeke crazy type deal which were rampant it seems in 2020 for cmc, cook, henry, and zeke it seems about right with today’s comps. just wanted to throw out my reasoning and thoughts 🙂
Every single RB is injury prone. Nature of the position. When healthy, guys like Barkley and Mccaffrey are total game changers though, that is not common.
Gettleman would have extended him.
So the giants should do the opposite
You could tag barkley and extended jones 3 to 5 more years . Jones won’t commando top QB money but will be in the 25 million dollar range . That gives a little more cap flexibility.
As soon as the football giants can get out of the golladay contract they will be fine. The franchise is in a lot better shape then it was 9 months ago
Love the comment “as soon as we get out of the Golladay contract we’ll be ok”. With Gettleman it was always waiting to get out of that next contract. As soon as we’re out of the OBJ dead money we’ll be ok. As soon as we’re out of the Vernon contract we’ll be ok. As soon as we’re out of the Solder contract we’ll be ok. Now it’s, as soon as we’re out of the Galladay contract we’ll be ok.
Let’s start to become financially responsible and not hand out big money deals to over the hill or one year wonder players. I feel with Schoen those days are over.
I’m sure that Schoen will find a way to keep Barkley on the roster at a reasonable AAV. As for Jones, I think the handwriting is on the wall. Either he accepts a low salary, say 3 yr/ $45 or they let him go. The evidence suggests that is the reason Schoen has been personally scouting college QB’s every weekend, and why he brought Taylor in on a 2 year contract. If Jones wants big money, they’ll let him try next find it elsewhere, then draft a QB and let him sit behind Taylor for a year to learn. I think they have plans A,B, and C in place.
Absolutely. Neither Jones (inconsistent play) nor Barkley (position, injury history) justify huge deals. Both would bring comp picks and leave a lot of cap space. Play the long game, Giants.
Keeping both is fine but at a price which allows the Giants to continue to build the roster.