The New York Giants are reportedly dodging an offer they made to their best offensive player earlier this offseason.
NFL News: New York Giants treating Saquon Barkley in bad faith
According to Mike Florio with NBC Sports, the Giants offered running back Saquon Barkley $13 million annually. That wasn’t enough for Barkley, who wanted $16 million. Instead, the Giants had to sign quarterback Daniel Jones to a ridiculous long-term deal instead and apply the tag to Barkley. The Giants have since rescinded the $13 million offer:
“The Giants had wanted to sign Barkley to a multi-year deal and to apply the franchise tag to quarterback Daniel Jones. They instead signed Jones and tagged Barkley — and they have not to date been willing to put the $13 million per year offer back on the table for Barkley. before they slapped him with the franchise tag.”
As Green Bay Packers fans, Denver Broncos fans, Dallas Cowboys fans, and Las Vegas Raiders fans have heard from running backs this offseason, the league doesn’t respect them. Barkley is facing an even more egregious form of disrespect from the Giants.
If Florio’s report is to be believed, the Giants passed on Barkley’s $16 million deal to pay him $10.1 this season under the tag, for a total difference of $3 million between Barkley and the front office.
However, the Giants inked Jones to $40 million per year, over $7 million more than the franchise tag would have cost at the quarterback position this year and $3 million per year more than what the Giants had wanted to pay Jones originally in negotiations.
The value the Giants gave Jones is much higher than Barkley, and Barkley has been much better and consistent during his time in New York than Jones. Jones had one…meh season in 2022; the rest have been God-awful.
Running backs deserve better than this
The quarterback position is more important than the running back position. However, that’s exactly why paying Barkley and tagging Jones would have made more sense. The Giants could have seen how Jones played this season before deciding how much to invest in a player with a 60-34 touchdown to interception ratio.
While the running back’s value in the NFL has decreased in recent years, one can’t argue it’s unimportant. If it weren’t, teams wouldn’t use their limited franchise tag opportunity on them with such frequency. Three of the five players tagged this offseason were running backs.
Barkley should think about sitting out this season if the Giants won’t pay him his worth by Monday, the deadline before the franchise tag is a lock for the seson. Let the front office see the Giants win games with the quarterback they overvalued in March.
Really, I’d like to see Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs join Barkley in a sit-out. The league needs to fix its running back dilemma. The best way to apply pressure upstairs might be to make fantasy owners take notice.
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