While Barkley is a great player, it was everything else he meant to the organization and fan base that was truly important
The Saquon Barkley thing.
New York Giants fans know what that is. The fact that the Giants were unable or unwilling to sign Barkley, then let him walk to the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency has been front and center all season as Barkley had a historic 2,000-yard rushing season and has led the Eagles to the cusp of a championship.
It will never be more in the face of the Giants’ organization and fan base than Sunday night, when Barkley and the Eagles try to prevent a Kansas City Chiefs’ Three-Peat in Super Bowl LIX.
How many times will the subject of the Giants failing to keep their best player and letting him land with a bitter division rival come up on the broadcast? I haven’t found it, but there has to be a prop bet on that somewhere.
Now, there is new reporting about the back-and-forth negotiations between Barkley and the Giants that eventually ended in divorce.
Sports Illustrated reported recently that Barkley turned down one offer from the Giants for more overall money than the three years and $37.75 million he signed for in Philadelphia.
Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, who has probably done the best, most exhaustive reporting on the Barkley-Giants negotiations, went inside the entire 18-month process recently.
Dunleavy reported that there were at least 15 offers and counter-offers exchanged during the process.
This paragraph from Dunleavy might be the one that strikes the heart of Giants fans who still don’t get why this happened:
Had the Giants upped their own final offer to him, made in July 2023, by about $1.5 million guaranteed over three years, Barkley never would’ve reached free agency, and HBO’s “Hard Knocks” would’ve been boring television. The Eagles’ season might be over.
Valentine’s View
Dunleavy has reported that detail before. I have never understood how or why the Giants let $1.5 million over three seasons, in NFL dollars the kind of chump change you probably keep in a cup holder in your car, come between them and the chance to keep their best, most popular player and locker room leader.
The truth is, had the Giants paid Barkley it likely would not have made any difference on the field in 2024. The Athletic’s Austin Mock recently used his NFL Projection Model to simulate the season 100,000 times for the Giants if Barkley had stayed.
The result? Instead of going 3-14, the Giants end up 4-13. Big whoop! They win one more game and drop a few draft spots.
Mock wrote:
All we’ve heard all year is how bad the Giants have looked for letting Barkley, their No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, leave in free agency to join the rival Eagles. The Giants could’ve and probably should’ve backed up the Brinks truck to keep him in New York, especially since they are about to start over at QB, and Barkley’s presence in the backfield would surely alleviate pressure from a rookie signal caller next season.
But regarding this season, I vehemently disagree with those who think Barkley would have made a big difference for the Giants, and the model backs me up. It’s hard to envision Barkley, a 2024 first-team All-Pro who became the ninth NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, having even close to the same success behind a substandard Giants offensive line that ranked 27th in run block win rate, according to ESPN. By comparison, the Eagles’ star-studded O-line, which features two 2024 second-team All-Pro tackles, ranked ninth. Sure, the Giants would’ve been better with Barkley but not by much considering how bad the rest of their offense was.
Truth is, Barkley probably rushes for 1,200 yards with the Giants instead of the 2,005 he got for the Eagles. Tyrone Tracy gained 839 yards despite barely playing the first four weeks. He averaged 62.3 yards rushing per game over the final 13 games. Over a full 17 games, that is 1,059 yards. Good production that would likely have been better if the Giants weren’t consistently getting blown out.
Where GM Joe Schoen miscalculated was everywhere else.
As SI’s Greg Bishop wrote, Barkley is “not another disposable number on a spreadsheet. Never was. Never will be.”
That is where Schoen got it wrong.
The damage wasn’t done on the field. It was done in the locker room. It was done in the fan base. It was done to the organization’s reputation, turning them into the butt of jokes and the target of vehement criticism that isn’t going away.
Sometimes what makes sense philosophically or on a balance sheet, like a bad team not paying an oft-injured 27-year-old running back big money or using that money on the theoretically more important position of offensive line, doesn’t make sense in real life.
People matter. What they mean to their teammates and to the heart of an organization matters.
Sometimes you have to look up from your spreadsheet and see the forest for the trees. That is the lesson every Giants fan should hope Schoen takes from this experience.
