The NY Giants made an effort to extend Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley and Dexter Lawrence this offseason. After getting things done with Danny Dimes and Sexy Dexy, all eyes turned to No. 26. On Monday at around 4 p.m., though, we learned that Barkley would not get his payday.
Let's be clear about something: the money going to Jones and Lawrence is not the reason the Giants were unable to sign Barkley. Giants general manager Joe Schoen clearly felt that he offered Barkley a fair deal, especially with how the RB market looks these days.
Barkley was holding out for more money, as he's easily the most explosive playmaker on offense and a big part of the locker room. The two sides were close, but again, nothing was signed. Plenty of people are mad at Jones about this. They absolutely should not be.
This notion that Daniel Jones’ contract is why the Giants didn’t sign Saquon Barkley to a long-term deal is nonsense.
— Doug Rush (@TheDougRush) July 18, 2023
If they had tagged Jones, that would have ate up $32.4M of the cap space the Giants had at the time and Saquon was likely going elsewhere.
By tagging Barkley… pic.twitter.com/8M1zVJ3c4B
The NY Giants and Saquon Barkley could not come to terms on a new deal
Signing Jones did not stop the Giants from extending Barkley and it’s that simple. Imagine if the Giants had tagged Jones instead of Barkley. That's a $32.4 million cap hit they would have been looking at. And with the way the QB market is set, it's no wonder Schoen put $160 million on the table.
Schoen was keeping the cap in mind. Don't forget that the Giants are suffering from more than a $14 million dead cap hit for releasing Kenny Golladay. The old moves from Dave Gettleman continue to hurt this team even after he’s long gone. Moves of the past regime will be a nightmare for a while.
At the end of the day, Schoen was set on his price for Barkley and ultimately decided he would live with it. Barkley decided he would rather not sign the deal that was put in front of him - the two sides negotiated right up to the deadline.
Now the Giants will have to hope Barkley will play under the franchise tag, but there are plenty of people worried that he's going to be away from the team for the rest of the summer. Not only that, but there's a chance we don't see Barkley out on the field to take on the Cowboys once Week 1 arrives too. If that happens, Jones is the last person you should blame for that.
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