Saquon Barkley and the Giants didn’t reach a multi-year deal by Monday’s deadline. Now the worst-case scenarios are on the table.
Barkley announced it himself on Twitter.
“It is what it is,” he wrote at 3:54 p.m., six minutes prior to the deadline.
Barkley’s only option as a Giant this season is now to play on the one-year, $10.09 million franchise tag that the team placed on him in March.
But Barkley is not interested in doing that.
He has refused to sign the franchise tag tender, skipped the entire spring and OTA program, and has threatened to hold out through training camp and possibly even into the regular season.
A Barkley holdout could wreck the Giants’ season before it begins.
His absence would create a distraction and drama. His inability to get a fair contract likely won’t be received well in the locker room.
And if Barkley makes good on a regular season holdout, costing himself about $560,000 a week, the Giants can kiss relevance goodbye in 2023.
They are going from one of the NFL’s easiest schedules last season to one of its most difficult. It’s already going to be challenging to repeat the success of last year’s playoff berth and Wild Card win.
Without Barkley, Daniel Jones would have to play the first season under his new contract without his No. 1 weapon.
Barkley, 26, would be risking a lot by sitting out, obviously.
Le’Veon Bell is the cautionary tale for all players, especially running backs, after sitting out the entire 2018 Pittsburgh Steelers season and never recovering from that decision in his career.
The Giants have the option of rescinding the franchise tag entirely or even negotiating a tag-and-trade of Barkley out of town. And the team is basically gambling that Barkley won’t be willing to miss a game check or go down that risky route Bell once took.
Giants co-owner John Mara, GM Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll all said publicly in the spring that they want Barkley to remain a Giant long term.
However, that is now unlikely with Barkley cornered into a one-year deal in New York and his relationship with the organization shaky due to these contentious and personal negotiations.
From a business standpoint, the team wouldn’t budge off the leverage it held due to the cratered running back market and the franchise tag they used on Barkley.
Barkley, the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs and the Cowboys’ Tony Pollard all were franchise tagged this offseason. The Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott. The Vikings cut Dalvin Cook.
The Bengals gave Joe Mixon a pay cut. And Miles Sanders’ Panthers contract, the highest for a free agent back this offseason, averaged only $6.35 million.
Mara said in late March that he had told Barkley: “We want you to be one of the leaders of this team, want you to be one of the faces of this franchise. But there’s a limit as to how far we can go. We have to build a team around you. And we’ve gotten just about as far as we can.”
And Schoen pulled his March offer to Barkley off the table once he signed Jones to a multi-year extension and used the franchise tag and reset the running back’s negotiations.
Barkley, however, vented frustration in early June and alleged “misleading” and “untruthful” leaks about Giants contract offers that “tried to make me look like I’m greedy,” in his words.
Barkley was bothered by reports that he had turned down a $13 million a year contract prior to being tagged. He believed the guaranteed money and entire contract wasn’t sufficient or truly reflective of that value. And he didn’t like that any of it got out.
“We say ‘family business is family business’ in that facility, … and then sources come out and stories get leaked, and it didn’t come from me,” Barkley said. “It’s all about respect. That’s really what it is.”
Barkley’s comments were a shot across the bow at the Giants, questioning their integrity and alleging hypocrisy. And that created a hurdle to clear to break the stalemate in the final hours of these negotiations that had nothing to do with the financial details.
Their failure to reach a deal leaves a sour taste for Barkley, also, because while he was tagged and hard-balled, the Giants locked up both Jones and defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to long-term contracts.
Jones signed a four-year, $160 million extension in March with $104 million guaranteed, including $82 million in the first two years.
The true value of Jones’ contract amounted to three years and $112.5 million, or $37.5 million on average. But the $40 million average on the full deal put Jones in a three-way tie as the ninth highest-paid QB alongside the Rams’ Matthew Stafford and the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott.
Lawrence signed a four-year, $90 million extension in new money in May with $59 million guaranteed. His $22.5 million average annual value ties him as the fourth-highest paid defensive tackle alongside Washington’s Daron Payne.
Can the Giants claim to take care of their own now that they haven’t committed to Barkley, one of the catalysts of last year’s playoff run in Daboll’s first season? The question answers itself.
Barkley was hoping to land a contract above and in the neighborhood of the Titans’ Derrick Henry ($12.5 million average annual value) and the Browns’ Nick Chubb ($12.2 million), below the 49ers’ Christian McCaffrey ($16 million) and the Saints’ Alvin Kamara ($15 million). But he wanted more money guaranteed than was offered.
Jones, Lawrence and Barkley all took significant steps to push back on the Giants. But only Jones and Lawrence found success.
Jones was non-committal about a future with the Giants after their divisional playoff loss to the Eagles in January. Then he switched agents from CAA to Athletes’ First to secure a contract that required marathon final-week negotiations through the NFL Combine.
Lawrence didn’t report to the first two-and-a-half weeks of the Giants’ offseason program as he waited for the team to commit to him.
Barkley added CAA to his contract team in June after failing to land a contract with Roc Nation leading the way since last fall’s early November negotiations at the Week 9 bye.
The difference between Barkley’s negotiations from the others, though, was how personal they became, how they cast a cloud over the entire offseason, and how they now promise to threaten this team’s chemistry and ability to succeed this season.
Barkley can sit out all of training camp and the preseason without being fined, since he isn’t technically on the roster while declining to sign the tag’s tender.
Barkley needs contract security, too, though. A holdout would rob him of an opportunity to play games while the clock on his prime is ticking as he prepares to turn 27 years old in February.
The Giants might not know until September if Barkley is actually prepared to sit out real games. But now, they are risking finding out the answer to that question the hard way.
