Big Blue View
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.
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...
