Giants Rumors: Saquon Barkley and NY were this close to reaching an extension

With countless NY Giants fans hoping to still be celebrating some positive news right now, the opposite turned out to be the case, with Saquon Barkley not landing an extension by the deadline. The two sides were talking right up to 4 p.m., but nothing was signed. Goodness.

As it turns out, things were a lot closer than you might have imagined. According to the NY Post's Ryan Dunleavy, the Giants upped their guaranteed money offer to No. 26, but they lowered the annual numbers. This essentially is what prevented things from getting done:

NY Giants running back Saquon Barkley will play 2023 on the franchise tag

"The Giants’ final three-year offer was in the ballpark of $11 million to $11.5 million per year with guarantees between $22 million and $23 million, multiple sources told the Post. Those numbers were all within $1 million to $2 million on both ends of Barkley’s reduced asking price."

- Ryan Dunleavy

This just makes things sting even more. After months of talks, it looks like Schoen and Barkley were around $1-2 million off in the final number that they would compromise to. Earlier in the offseason, it was reported that the Giants had put an offer worth $13-14 million per year with incentives on the table.

However, it was unknown how much guaranteed money was part of that contract offer. According to Dunleavy, NY's previous best offer included only $19.5 million in guaranteed dough - that number was never going to make Barkley happy.

As much as they tried to get things over the line, both sides stood strong with their final offers, which has left Barkley's future with the team completely up in the air. No one expects Barkley to be in East Rutherford next week for the start of camp. We may not see Barkley with the Giants for the rest of the summer too, though people are hopeful he won't miss any regular season action.

READ MORE: 5 biggest losers from the Giants not extending Saquon Barkley