Monday afternoon marked the deadline for NFL teams to work on extensions with all the players who were franchise tagged at the beginning of the offseason.
Giants running back Saquon Barkley was one of the players league wide that was placed under the tag. He and the G-men unfortunately were unable to agree to terms on a new contract before the start of training camp.
The former can’t miss prospect out of Penn State has to turn the clocks back this year as he had his best year since his rookie season in 2022 finishing top-five in rushing yards and even earning his second Pro Bowl not for the New York Giants as they made it to the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. This was also Barkley’s first full season since his sensational rookie year in 2018 and he had his first 1000 yard season since 2019.
The Giants had to make a decision this off-season between the revived Barkley or former first round pick and “franchise quarterback” Daniel Jones. The Giants ultimately chose to give Jones a four year contract worth $160 million guaranteed with a chance of becoming $190 million with incentives.
According to league rules, the franchise tag is a designation a team may apply to a player scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. The tag binds the player to the team for one year if certain conditions are met. Each team has one franchise tag per year. The player must also make equivalent of what some of the top players in the league would make that year based on the position of said player. Players can opt out of signing the tag and sit out for the year and hit the open market once free agency opens up again next March.
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| Saquon Barkley File Photo |
The 2018 Rookie of the Year has been adamant about playing under the franchise tag as he wants some long-term security and his contract. Barkley may hold out now that there’s no deal in place and he is already expected to miss training camp.
As of right now, all signs are pointing towards him being the next Le’Veon Bell, and not playing at all for the New York Giants as he has still yet to sign the franchise tag and may not even agree to play this upcoming fall.
Barkley was also on a Zoom call over the weekend with other star running backs who complained to the NFLPA about not getting paid like other position players do. Running backs are often out-leveraged during contract negotiations due to the position's large amount of injury concerns and relatively short shelf life compared to Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers.