Saquon Barkley is free. Free to discover whatever inconvenient truths there are about the devalued running back market that could convince him to run to daylight and abandon his Giant For Life dream.
Here’s the deal that makes sense for Saquon Barkley and for Giants GM Joe Schoen once Barkley’s exploration from free to shining free ends now that he is not a prisoner of the franchise tag:
Three years, $33 million with $24 million in guarantees.
“His value hasn’t changed, especially for the organization,” Schoen said.
Barkley’s 2023 franchise tag was $10.1 million, and Schoen added $900,000 in good faith and face-saving to a degree (and unrealistic) incentives: $11 million … still less than what the $12.1 million franchise tag that Barkley didn’t want would have gotten him.
With the salary cap ballooning by $30 million, let’s agree that Schoen should not blink at adding the incentives yearly to the deal, and revisiting the guaranteed monies The Post’s Ryan Dunleavy reported last July that Barkley had rejected.
“We have all grown through the last 13 or 14 months. And Saquon could be in a different place than he was then,” Schoen said.
With the salary cap increase, so should Schoen.
Allow me to add my two cents:
Consider Packers RB Aaron Jones. He turned 29 in December. Jones, following a restructuring of his contract, earned $11 million in 2023 with an $8.52 million signing bonus and is due to make $12 million in 2024. He missed six games with knee and hamstring issues and finished with 656 rushing yards and two TDs and 30 receptions for 233 yards and one TD.
Barkley turned 27 in February. He had 247 rushes for 962 yards and six TDs in 14 games last season, with 41 receptions for 280 yards and four TDs.
Spotrac’s calculated market value for Barkley: three years, $29,928,690.
Average salary: $9,976,230.
This is the moment of truth for Barkley, and for the Giants.
Anyone who has crossed paths with and gotten to know Saquon Barkley wants the best for him, because he is among the best of us, a face every franchise should want as their face.
Root for him now to feel wanted.
If you are among the legions of Giants fans who flood MetLife Stadium wearing your 26 jersey, you will be rooting for his Giant For Life ending.
If you understand why Schoen has no inclination to upset the devalued running back applecart and decides that with a team still to rebuild, with the running back market saturated with marquee names, a future without Saquon Barkley is the necessary evil, root for Barkley to find health and happiness with a franchise and a franchise quarterback that are closer to the Super Bowl than the Giants currently are.
Should Barkley find a money-talks-Saquon-might-walk suitor, then he will return to 1925 Giants Drive to learn the answer as to how much respect he has from the regime that did not draft him second overall in 2018.
I get both sides of it — but shame on the Giants if they lowball Barkley now.
The Giants are a better team with Barkley on the field. Daniel Jones is a better quarterback with Barkley on the field. The next Giants franchise quarterback will be a better quarterback with Barkley on the field. Unless and until the Giants draft or sign a No. 1 receiver, Barkley is the Giants’ best playmaker.
He is universally respected in the locker room. He is a captain. It has meant so much to him to be a New York Giant.
If, say, the Texans — or Cowboys (gasp) or Eagles (gasp) — make him an offer he can’t refuse, an offer the Giants can refuse, no one should begrudge him if he takes the money and runs.
Of course this is a cutthroat business. But don’t cut Saquon Barkley’s throat if you don’t have to. It would send the worst possible message to a locker room that reveres him. As would replacing him with one of the other available backs. You keep your own if you can. Especially if you can prevent him from wearing a star on his helmet as America’s Back, or singing Fly Eagles Fly at the Linc.
Someone will Payquon whatever the market determines. Let it be the Giants.
