NFL insider links Saquon Barkley with trade to surprising team

Well, this is certainly something people are going to be talking about for quite some time. In an article from Bleacher Report insider Kristopher Knox on players who should be on the trade block, Knox put NY Giants running back Saquon Barkley on his list. In said article, Knox stated Barkley’s best fit was with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who added $10.5 million in cap space after losing Ronald Jones in free agency.

While we would rather see the NY Giants keep Barkley, Knox did make some very good points that show why a potential trade could work out for both teams. Despite this, we still believe the Giants would be better off keeping the former Pro-Bowl back.

"“While a healthy Barkley could help get more out of Jones, he could also bring much-needed value in a trade,” Knox wrote on Barkley. “His guaranteed $7.2 million salary isn’t excessive, and the Giants might be able to pry a high Day 2 pick from a contender if they’re willing to absorb some of it. The alternative for New York is letting Barkley play out his contract and then deciding whether to invest heavily in an up-and-down running back with a lengthy injury history. That’s a tough position for a franchise that isn’t ready to compete now.”"

NY Giants Saquon Barkley trade to the Buccaneers both does and doesn’t make sense

As much as we like Barkley and want him to be a NY Giant for his entire career, with the potential cap situation, combined with their rebuilding phase, it may make a little sense to consider trading the speedster.

For starters, as previously mentioned, Barkley is set to be a free agent after the 2022 NFL season if the NY Giants do not extend him. With this, it means they will either have to let him go for nothing, or re-sign him to what will likely be a very large contract if they opt to not trade him.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Giants will have around $54 million in cap space next season. While this is a lot of money, the Giants will likely need to re-sign Daniel Jones depending on how he performs this season. Alongside this, other notable players like Blake Martinez are also on expiring contracts and could get extensions. Things are up in the air there.

This means that while the Giants have a serviceable amount of cap space in 2023, it could fade quickly if they opt to re-sign Jones, Barkley and Martinez. When you couple this with the amount of expiring contracts in 2024 (Leonard Williams, Sterling Shepard, Dexter Lawrence and more) the odds of the Giants having extensive cap becomes small. If the Giants want to look to avoid entering “cap hell” then they may opt to trade a player like Barkley to free up potential space.

The NY Giants should hang on to Saquon Barkley

With all of that said, countless fans do not want to see Barkley go, and we believe there are several more expendable players who the Giants would be wiser to part ways with. However, these players will likely not demand as much money as Barkley, who, when healthy, has the potential to be among the best RBs in the game.

The biggest question with a trade this season has to be, “who would replace Barkley if he were traded?” The answer is not very inspiring. As things currently stand in the NY Giants depth chart,  the only RBs on the roster with experience besides Barkley are Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell and Antonio Williams. While Breida is certainly a serviceable RB, he is nowhere close to being a reliable RB1 for a rebuilding team like the Giants.

So, while a potential Barkley trade may make sense for the Giants cap space, we would much rather have a premier RB under contract for the foreseeable future as opposed to a player of Breida’s caliber. Barkley could play his way to a new deal if he has a strong year. You never know, though: a trade could end up happening.