Giants had unique pitch to sell Saquon Barkley on before deciding to let him walk as a free agent

The New York Giants ultimately decided to move on from Saquon Barkley this offseason, yet there was one more card in the deck they wanted to use in order to retain him. After a back-and-forth negotiation period with the franchise tag over the past year, the Giants envisioned giving Barkley a long-term deal. 

On Episode 2 of “Hard Knocks” with the Giants front office, general manager Joe Schoen explained to assistant general manager Brandon Brown how he was going to try to sign Barkley for less money. 

“Hey, here is our price. You want your name up here forever? Two more years you’re in the Ring of Honor,” Schoen said to Brown. “Or you want a million dollars more to go somewhere else?”

Those comments were never repeated to Barkley, as the Giants, obviously, went a different route. 

“The right thing to do is let you test the market to see what your value is,” Schoen said to Barkley. “I don’t want to do the franchise [tag] thing or all that stuff again. I don’t want to go through that. We’ve both been through that. 

“If you really want to be a Giant for life and you’re interested in coming back, see what your market is and have [your agent] Ed [Berry] come back to us and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement.”

Schoen wanted Barkley’s word on other offers he received and circling back to the Giants, as Barkley explained to him “I already told you where I want to be.”

Eight days later, Barkley signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for three years and $37.75 million. He also received $26 million guaranteed, an offer that didn’t appear to come close to what the Giants were going to offer Barkley prior to letting him hit free agency. 

The Giants decided to allocate their money elsewhere, and moved on from Barkley in the process. The wall of franchise greats was an…

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Author : Jeff Kerr

Publish date : 2024-07-10 20:17:27

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