‘Hard Knocks’ highlights Giants’ talks with Saquon Barkley ahead of free agency: ‘Test the market’

Schoen then called Saquon to inform the back that they planned to let him hit the market. The GM pushed the RB to give him a chance to match any offer.

Schoen: “So, I just talked to Ed Berry, and I think just mulling over this, the right thing to do is let you test the market and see what your value is. I don’t want to do the franchise [tag] thing or all that stuff again. I don’t want to go through that. We’ve both been through that. If you really want to be a Giant for life and you’re interested in staying here and coming back, just see what your market is and then have Ed come back to us, and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement.”

Barkley: “All right, I appreciate that.”

Schoen: “That sound good?”

Schoen: “Can you give me your word on that, or you not going to give us a chance?”

Barkley: “What do you mean, like circling back?”

Barkley: “I mean, I already told you where I want to be, so …”

Schoen: “OK. Alright, well, let’s do that. We’ll go out and see what the market says. I think that’s the right thing to do. I love you, man. I appreciate everything you did for the organization the two years I was here, and I’m not saying we’re not going to get something done, but if for some reason it doesn’t work out, that you know that the organization thinks the world of you and everything you’ve done. But hopefully you go out there, you see the market, and you say, ‘you know what I want to be here,’ and you give us a shout back.”

Barkley: “Alright, I appreciate y’all.”