The New York Giants and running back Saquon Barkley are no closer to an agreement on a long-term deal and therefore, he will be absent during the team’s mandatory minicamp this week.
At a football camp in Jersey City on Sunday, Barkley told reporters he doesn’t intend to sign his franchise tender anytime soon and that means he won’t be permitted to take part in any team-related activities.
Beyond that, Barkley expressed frustration with leaks he feels are coming from the Giants. Case in point: Rejecting a deal worth up to $14 million annually.
“We say ‘family business is family business’ in that facility, in that building, and I’m gonna stick to that,” Barkley said, via the New York Daily News. “The thing I’m frustrated most about is, like how I said ‘family business is family business,’ and then sources come out and stories get leaked, and it didn’t come from me … I feel like it’s trying to paint a narrative of me, a picture of me that’s not even the truth. It’s not even close to being true.”
Barkley also seemed pessimistic that a deal would get done by the July 17 deadline, leaving the door open for extreme measures — even possibly sitting out the entire regular season.
“I think that’s a conversation, like you said, that’s a card I could play,” Barkley said. “That comes up in conversation if something doesn’t get done by July 17. And we got a little bit of time in between there. So when that date comes up, then I’ll have to sit down with my team and my family and make decisions, see what we’re gonna do, what’s the game plan, what’s the next move.”
The reality is, Barkley isn’t going to sit out the season and lose out on a guaranteed $10.1 million because he wants a few million more. But he’s lost almost all leverage in negotiations due to a rapidly deteriorating market and needs to put some level of pressure on the Giants and general manager Joe Schoen. This is one of the few cards left to play.
“I think they’re open to talking,” Barkley said. “I think I’m open to talking. But I think at the end of the day, when you really break it down and look at it as a whole, it’s no rush. There’s no rush. We still have time. . . July 17 is not tomorrow. It’s not in a week. We still have time, and that’s how I look at it.”
In 2018, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell refused to sign the franchise tender and sat out the entire season. His career was never the same after that and his big payday never arrived. He has since admitted to regretting that decision and advises other players not to take the same path he did.
Whether or not a long-term deal with Barkley gets done, he’s not going to leave guaranteed millions on the table when the entire dispute is over money in the first place.
