Where do the New York York Giants and star running back Saquon Barkley go from here, now that the team failed to reach a long-term agreement with the two-time Pro Bowler?
The options are few. Barkley has two roads — sign the one-year, $10.1 million franchise tag tender or sit out in protest.
The latter won’t do him much good as his salary will get reduced by approximately $560K per game missed. The former puts him back in a Giants uniform to continue his stellar career.
The Giants can ease the detente between the two sides by pulling a few relatively unknown, rarely-used measures in an effort to entice Barkley to play for the tag price.
From the New York Post:
If the Giants get antsy about Barkley’s absence in the preseason spilling into the regular season, they could offer a clause forfeiting the right to use a second franchise tag next offseason — assuring Barkley of free agency in 2024 — in exchange for him signing the $10.1 million tag and reporting sooner.
“At that position, be careful what you ask for,” CBSSports.com contracts analyst Joel Corry told The Post. “That puts a lot of pressure on this year.
“But if they don’t want to tag him next year then it’s a meaningless gift they could give.”
Another incentive the Giants theoretically could offer to expedite Barkley’s arrival is a slight raise over the tag-guaranteed baseline salary, though Corry could not think of an instance when that happened.
Barkley is likely to hold out as long as he can. Most predict he’ll sit out training camp and the preseason and report for duty when the regular season begins.
The Giants could bump him up a bit in salary to push things along, but as stated above, that’s never been done in these situations.
Removing the possibility of a second franchise tag could backfire on Barkley, too. Many think that’s not going to happen, anyway. If the Giants wouldn’t pay him $13 million this year, why would they be willing to do it next season?
If Barkley sits the season out, the Giants will have to hope that a committee of journeyman Matt Breida, rookie Eric Gray, special teamer Gary Brightwell, and the unproven Jashaun Corbin can get the job done.
There is also the free agent route, with players such as Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook, but they could cost almost as much as it would to simply retain Barkley and possess just as many injury red flags.
