Giants GM Joe Schoen could not say Thursday whether he expects Saquon Barkley to be on the field in Week 1 for the Giants.
“You’ll have to ask him,” Schoen said at the team’s practice facility in East Rutherford, N.J. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what his plan is. I haven’t talked to him in probably three weeks.”
Asked if Barkley still wants to be a Giant, Schoen added: “I haven’t talked to him.”
If Schoen spoke to Barkley three weeks ago, around the NFL’s owners meetings, that would be a new development. That week in Phoenix, both Schoen and co-owner John Mara said they hadn’t spoken with Barkley directly in 10 days.
Regardless, Schoen’s point seemed to be that they have made zero progress since tabling negotiations after placing the $10.1 million franchise tag on his running back in mid-March.
Barkley, 26, has not signed the franchise tag tender and therefore is not reporting to the team’s facility at this time. There’s no telling how long this will drag on.
“When we had the conversations with Saquon, it was known that we were gonna get to a certain point and then we were gonna move on and regroup at some other time,” Schoen said.
The GM temporarily grew terse and cut off one of the many Barkley questions during his pre-draft press conference.
“Nothing’s changed since we talked at the owners meetings,” he said, repeating a phrase he’d used earlier. “There’s nothing new. I haven’t talked to him.”
Schoen’s update on Barkley contrasted sharply with his report that the “dialogue’s good” and ongoing with defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence’s agents despite his absence.
“I’m just gonna get through the draft right now,” Schoen said, when asked if he has a new offer in mind for Barkley. “My focus right now is solely on that. So there’s no rush right now. I just want to get through the draft, step back after that, see what the roster looks like and go from there.”
Schoen admitted it’s difficult removing the personal and human elements from these business negotiations, but it’s required.
“No, not really,” he quipped, when asked if he’s good at it. “It’s tough. These guys are around, they work hard, we had a heck of a season last year, and you become close with them. And it’s hard but you have to separate it.”
“I’m not gonna say I’m good at it, because there’s a human element on both sides for them and myself,” the GM continued. “But there is a business side to it. And in a perfect world there’s no salary cap and you can make everybody happy and pay everybody.”
Schoen said that part of the job is a new challenge since he didn’t really have to take it on during his first offseason.
“That’s something I haven’t been through before,” Schoen said. “Last year we didn’t really extend people from our roster … So after going through a season with the players, and then this next step of the process — whether it was extending or players leaving the organization — the human element, that part stinks.
“Because you do like all these guys, they put in a lot of work for you,” Schoen added. “So it’s tough to separate the business end from the human element … The way [Brian Daboll] and I are around the building and getting to know the players — maybe we do that more than most — you do become attached, for sure.”
With negotiations cut off for now, however, the only real remaining deadline for the two sides to agree on a contract extension is July 17 at 4 p.m. Otherwise, Barkley would have to play on a one-year deal.
If the situation sours beyond repair, the Giants and Barkley could arrange a tag and trade, too.
Barkley already turned down a multi-year offer averaging over $12 million per season twice in both November and January. Since then, Schoen has paid Daniel Jones on a four-year, $160 million extension, tagged Barkley and insisted the organization is comfortable with him on the tag in 2023.
There is no obvious end to this standoff in sight, which the Giants GM as much as admitted.
