Giants operating with logic and sense in Saquon Barkley negotiations, not misplaced emotion

PHOENIX — It’s a business decision in a business situation. Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll deserve an awful lot of credit for operating as such.

There was a contract offer on the table with a Giants letterhead for Saquon Barkley to sign during the bye week that would have paid him $12.5 million annually. There was another, for a smidge more, pushed across after the season ended.

Barkley turned down both. And now, the table is bare.

Good.

For the first time in a long time the Giants are operating with logic and sense, not misplaced emotion.

Barkley is good. There are few who have walked this planet as God-given talented as him. Just last year, the 26-year-old rushed for 1,312 yards and 10 touchdowns. Impressive numbers. They’re grander, considering every Giants opponent Weeks 1-18 made it their top priority to shut him down and still couldn’t. He is, undeniably, a bell cow and one of the best running backs in the league.

Keywords: Running back.

This is not 1975. The days of building your offense around a running back are over. Father Time seems to catch up to them quicker than other positions. That’s why so many teams value a committee over one player. Sure, it’s valuable when you can get one of the better in the league. Most teams — the truly good teams — ride those players while they have them under team control for four, five, or six years, then let them walk to another to reward them for the player they were, not the player they are or will be.

You get the sense past Giants regimes have a long-term deal done with Barkley yesterday. Maybe it wouldn’t have blown past Christian McCaffrey’s league-leading $16 million annually, but it would have met or just topped it. Management would have looked past his injury issues, drops in the passing game, and inevitable talent decline to pay Barkley. It would be celebrated in real time. The pain then felt two or three years down the road.

That, finally, is not the case anymore.

The Giants are at long last operating like a modern day team.

A cold, harsh reality has undeniably set in for Barkley and whatever he thought he was worth before, during and just after the 2022 season. Austin Eckler, a far more versatile player than Barkley, described the market as “brutal” during an appearance on The Green Light Podcast with Chris Long, and there really isn’t a better description.

Miles Sanders, David Montgomery, and Jamaal Williams were the top three backs on the open market. The Carolina Panthers got Sanders for $25 million over four years. Montgomery went to the Detroit Lions for $18 million over three. Williams went to the New Orleans Saints for $12 million over three.

The lesson: You’re only worth what someone is willing to pay you.

Barkley, certainly, is better than all the above. He’d have topped the three’s deals if out there in free agency. But by how much? A team flushed with cash like the Chicago Bears could give up $8 million annually. The Buffalo Bills, knowing they’re on the cusp of a Super Bowl, could get creative with a deal in the same range. But the idea any team would pay him north of the $10 million franchise tag the Giants slapped him with is silly. The thought the Giants should do it themselves on a long-term extension? That’s bad business. Schoen isn’t going to bid against himself.

The justification for the Giants' original $12.5-million offer was simple. He was not as versatile as McCaffrey ($16 million AAV) or the Saints’ Alvin Kamara ($15 million). He’s not as consistent as the Minnesota Vikings’ Dalvin Cook ($12.6 million). They believed him to be similar (when healthy) to Nick Chubb, who has an AAV of $12 million. So, they built a contract similar to that.

And that made sense at the time. It doesn’t make sense now. The market dictates value, and Barkley does not have nearly as much value now as he did then.

So, the best thing the Giants can do is what Schoen seems fully inclined to do right now, barring a dramatic change in Barkley’s asking price: Play on the tag.

Barkley made it clear the franchise tag was the last thing he wanted when he met the media after the Giants’ playoff-eliminating loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. It seems inevitable he skips the Giants' offseason conditioning program in protest of no long-term extension. That’s fine. The Giants don’t need Barkley in their building in May. They don’t really need him for training camp. They need him for the regular season.

And Barkley will be there for that. Sitting out a season seldom works — see Melvin Gordon (Chargers) and Le’Veon Bell (Steelers). He’ll play. But, as Schoen made clear from the owners meeting, he’s going to play on the Giants’ terms.

Calling him an all-time Giant is a bit of a stretch, but it’s true that Barkley has done everything right during his five years in New York. He’s produced when on the field. He’s been a model citizen off it. He’s been a leader within the Giants' locker room. He endured some of the worst years this franchise has seen, then helped with the perceived turnaround of 2022.

What separates the truly great team builders in the NFL, though, is their ability to make decisions absent emotions. The fact there’s no contract offer on the table for Barkley now, nor does there appear to be one coming, is a sign Schoen and Daboll are finally operating like one of those teams.

Barkley is great right now, yes.

But this is a business.

And paying him big money simply isn’t smart business.