Saquon Barkley reportedly turned down a massive offer at start of offseason
At this point, NY Giants running back Saquon Barkley can't be too happy with his agent. Barkley was placed on the non-exclusive franchise tag earlier ($10.1 million for 2023) this offseason, as he and the G-Men weren't able to get on the same page with a contract extension.
However, it looks like general manager Joe Schoen isn't the one to blame for this. According to Giants beat reporter Bob Brookver of NJ Advance Media, Schoen and the NY front office offered Barkley a deal worth up to $14 million a year with incentives. Even with that head-turning amount of dough, No. 26 still said no.
It doesn’t appear as if the Giants are going to see Saquon Barkley in East Rutherford any time soon.
— Bob Brookover (@brookob) May 13, 2023
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The NY Giants offered Saquon Barkley a deal worth up to $14 million a year
"It’s such an odd situation because of what has already transpired. The Giants, according to sources, offered Barkley a multi-year deal worth $12.5 million a season at the bye week, then increased that number to $13 million with a chance to get to $14 million in incentives shortly after the season.
- Bob Brookover
Barkley rejected both deals. He and his agent Kim Miale obviously overestimated the running-back market. They could argue that Barkley doesn’t know his true value because he was blocked from testing the free-agent market after the Giants used the franchise tag on him."
At the end of the day, it really feels like Barkley made a big mistake here. The fact that Schoen came back with $13-14 million a year and it still wasn't good enough for him, well, it's concerning. With fans hoping that the Giants can still get something done with Barkley soon, there's no question that he'll need to bring his number down.
Schoen previously said that his earlier offer for Barkley is no longer on the table. Now, Schoen may only want to pay Barkley around $12 million a year with how the running back market has been set. Barkley had multiple opportunities to land his payday, but some bad advice has had a negative impact on him.
We're not going to be foolish and say Barkley isn't worthy of a handsome pay raise, but this latest update from Brookover doesn't give anyone much hope that a new contract will get finalized in the near future.