‘Hard Knocks’ documents final Saquon Barkley-Giants talks before RB’s departure: ‘We’re out’

To his credit, Mara didn’t push Schoen to go above and beyond, breaking his financial plans to retain Barkley.

Hard Knocks cameras provided insight into how the GM handled the negotiations, showing calls to Barkley’s agent, Ed Berry, and Mara during the process.

Schoen on the phone with Berry: “Hello? Ed Berry, what’s up, buddy? Alright, well, I’m putting this together, so in order to get Saquon, what would we have to do? I mean, again, this was kind of the whole point, was you would go out, find out what it is, and I’ll just say, ‘Yeah, we’re not going to be able to do that’ or ‘Yes we can.’ I mean, you’ve talked to him, if he wants to be here, there’s no sense in going back and forth. You say, ‘Hey, this is what he wants to be here,’ we’ll say, ‘Yes, we’ll do it,’ or ‘No, we won’t’ as I’m going through this. So 12.5 [million], you said? On a three-year? And then what’d you say the guarantee was? 25 [million] guaranteed. OK, so that’s, if I offered him today a three-year deal at 12.5 [million] APY and 25 [guaranteed], he’d be a Giant? OK, alright, well I’ll give you a call back, this may be above me on Saquon, but if I call you back and it’s three for 12.5 APY and 25 guaranteed, there you go? We’ll bring him down today, we’ll fly you up, do a press conference. Alright, appreciate you, buddy.”

Schoen on the phone with Mara: “Hey John, how’re you doing? I talked to the agent, and the agreement all along was that he would come back to me with a chance to match it. … I told the agent, I said if we match that deal, he’s going to be a Giant. And he’s like, ‘Well…’ You know, he hemmed and hawed, he’s like, I’m not saying that, we’ve got a lot of work to do if that happens.”