Should Joe Schoen get fired as Giants GM if Saquon Barkley has a monster season?

Saquon Barkley is no longer a member of the NY Giants, but given the amount of recent time talking about him, you’d still think he was a part of the franchise. A lot of that can be due to the recent airings of HBO’s Hard Knocks, which has focused on the offseason for the team.

The episodes each Tuesday night show what happened back in February and March when NY was getting ready for the start of free agency. The Giants were allowing Barkley to test the market and to come back to the Giants if they wanted to match a possible offer. Giants general manager Joe Schoen, though, declared the Giants out on him once the price tag went above the $12.5 million a season mark and $25 million in guaranteed money.

The Eagles gave him $37.75 million, with $26 million guaranteed. Now, a major talking point around the fanbase is what will happen if Barkley goes off for the Eagles and makes the Giants look bad. Could that lead to Schoen being shown the door?

Will Joe Schoen be on the hot seat if Saquon Barkley has a monster season?

Let’s say Barkley has one of his better seasons, pending he doesn’t get hurt. A 1,300-plus yard rushing campaign, over 10 touchdowns and he helps the Eagles to a possible deep postseason run to a Super Bowl and the Giants have another substandard season like they did in 2023. Would that be enough for Schoen to be fired from his position after three seasons?

The one sticking point that might make John Mara do something that drastic is the fact that he not only lost one of the team’s best players on offense, as well as one of the most popular players in recent time, but did so to the Eagles. Mara was seen as stating that he’d have a hard time sleeping if it happened. Mara generally isn’t known for making so many changes with regards to his two top spots for running the franchise in general manager and head coach. He’s changed more head coaches in recent years than he has general managers.

If the Giants were to finish with a record around 2-15 and Barkley has the kind of season we mentioned above where he looks like the “Saquon of old,” then the discussions of canning Schoen are going to be out there. The New York fanbase is tired of losing and they’re likely going to be out for blood if they see their former face of the franchise having a dominant season in a rival's uniform. Mara made it pretty clear that he wanted the Barkley free agency and contract stuff done over the last two years and didn’t like that it was heading into the unknown.

However, here’s where the reality is. The Giants and Eagles are in two very different places as far as the direction of their franchise goes. Barkley could very well be the Eagles final missing piece for a Super Bowl. Two years ago, the Eagles were in the Super Bowl and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles have been a constant playoff team who have made long playoff runs. They’re considered an NFC powerhouse each year, especially in recent seasons.

Meanwhile, the Giants are still figuring it out. For a lot of people, Barkley was a tough loss because yes, he was their best player skill wise on offense and was their most popular one. But, at the same time, Barkley is at a position that was more of a luxury as far as trying to build around. The Giants are trying to build around the quarterback and “didn’t want a $40 million quarterback handing it off to a $12 million running back.”

The Giants also have a ton of holes on the team and the most important one was the offensive line. Sure, the Giants could have spent the money to get Barkley back, but they were also risking not having money in free agency for the linemen they wanted in Jon Runyan Jr. and Jermaine Eluemunor, both of which were being pursued by other teams in free agency and forced the Giants to spend more on to keep away from those other teams.

Plus, there is no guarantee Barkley stays healthy, as he’s been injured in more seasons than he hasn’t as a pro. In the six seasons with the Giants, Barkley remained fully healthy for two seasons. One of which was his rookie season in 2018 and the other was in 2022, the Giants lone playoff season with him. Barkley, even in a contract year, missed three games with a sprained ankle, an injury he’s suffered three separate times and forced him to miss several games.

The Giants could have paid Barkley and he still could have gotten injured, which is also something that could happen while he’s on the Eagles as well and is now their problem. Had Saquon not been injured so much, his contract situation with the Giants would have likely been resolved a while ago and he’d still be on the team.

Back in the middle of the 2022 season and before the start of the 2023 season, the Giants and Schoen did make several contract offers to Barkley, which were rejected. The franchise tag was used before the 2023 season, and no long-term deal got done. The Giants tried to fit Barkley and Daniel Jones into the future, but in the end, it was only Jones who got the long-term deal and Barkley was on a tag. The Giants did try, but to Barkley, it wasn’t good enough or what he wanted.

So, with all scenarios out there, would Mara feel fed up enough with Schoen to let him go over losing Barkley? Probably not, only because he seems to believe in this new regime, the one that got to the playoffs and won a playoff game in their first season. Continuing to change the general manager and head coach continuously and expecting immediate results doesn’t tend to happen in today’s NFL unless you are extremely lucky. A rebuild that the Giants are in takes some time, even if the fanbase isn’t as patient with the results.

For Schoen’s sake, if Barkley does get hurt again and misses time because of an injury, it will back his decision to not fork over the money for him. Even if Barkley does have a good season and the Eagles have success, it shouldn’t impact what the Giants are doing, which is trying to build something for the long haul as opposed to just one decent season.

Schoen should not be on the hot seat for 2025 regardless of what happens with Barkley. The bigger picture for the Giants is him and Daboll building something not only for the present, but for the future. Schoen is trying to undo the mistakes made by the last two regimes, and despite the success of 2022, that undoing doesn’t always happen overnight. Again, the fans don’t always see it that way.

But in the end, Schoen should be back for 2025 to see this through for the Giants. By then, who knows if Barkley is still on the minds of the Giants or not. If they see the bigger picture too, then they know the roster and the franchise are much bigger than one popular player, especially one who didn’t produce a championship in his time with the team.