NEW YORK — Giants GM Joe Schoen said Wednesday that Saquon Barkley is “gonna be a part of this team going forward,” but the franchise tag was always a possibility if a deal didn’t get done by Tuesday, and Barkley knew that.
“That’s negotiations,” Schoen said on Zoom. “We had some deals out there. We tried to get a deal done with him and his representatives, and we couldn’t. And I think both parties knew at the end of the day that this was an option.
“I think if he’s frustrated I can understand some of that, and we can be frustrated as well that we weren’t able to get a deal done,” the GM added. “But I love Saquon, he’s a good player, he’s gonna be a part of this team going forward. And we’ll see where it goes from here.”
Schoen said with Barkley under the tag, “as we build the team and continue with our offseason plan, we’ll do what’s best for the team. And we’re still mapping that out.”
Barkley received the non-exclusive franchise tag, which opens the door for another team to try to sign him away on an offer sheet in exchange for two first-round picks going back to the Giants. The Giants have a right to match any offer if that happens.
It’s hard to believe any team would trade the Giants two firsts for a running back, though, and surely Schoen would take the draft picks if that happened, anyway.
Barkley’s agents turned down a multi-year contract offer worth $12-12.5 million a year last fall and continued to seek Christian McCaffrey-like money (in the $16 million neighborhood) in January.
Schoen and Barkley’s reps continued negotiations through the NFL combine but then tabled them and focused on locking up Daniel Jones Tuesday.
Barkley congratulated Jones on Twitter.
“Congrats brudda !!! @DanielJones10,” he tweeted.
Barkley’s $10.1 million tag number is more palatable for the team in the short term than Jones’ would have been at $32.4 million.
Jones said on Zoom that he was aware of the domino effect that his negotiations had on Barkley. He said “in a situation like this, you’re trying to do what’s best for you and your family while also balancing being part of a team and understanding the goals and the vision that we have as a team and as an organization.”
“That was certainly important to me throughout the deal, and I think we found a way to do both those things and to do it the right way for both sides,” Jones said. “So that was certainly important to me. Saquon, he means a ton to me as a teammate, as a friend and he means a ton to us as a player. So I certainly won’t talk about his business, but that was a piece of it, too.”
Schoen said he spoke to Barkley on Tuesday to inform him he was being tagged. He planned to reconnect with him on Wednesday, too, but admitted " I haven’t talked in depth with Saquon yet.”
“We’ve had deals out, whether it’s the bye week or recently, and we’re gonna continue to negotiate,” Schoen said. “We love Saquon. He’s a good teammate. He’s a captain. He’s a hell of a player.”
