‘Hard Knocks’ reveals John Mara-Joe Schoen talk that spelled end of Saquon Barkley with Giants

If it were up to Giants owner John Mara, Saquon Barkley may still have been a member of Big Blue.

While the opening episode of “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants” bounced around to a number of offseason issues that Joe Schoen and the Giants brain trust faced, the departure of the 2018 first-round pick played a central role throughout the 40-minute episode.

The most telling moment came during a Feb. 13 conversation between Schoen and Mara at the Giants facility in East Rutherford.

The HBO cameras captured a frank discussion between the two over what franchise tagging Barkley would really accomplish and whether there would be a trade market for Barkley if they decided to go that route.

“What are we really gonna get unless it got down to $7 million? I don’t want to offer that because I don’t want to be like we ‘disrespected him,’ ” Schoen said during the conversation. “There’s 31 teams and it only takes one to maybe be open to doing something. If it doesn’t get to that then, hey, we’re going to let you hit free agency. Find out your market, come back and let us know if we can match it. If we can, we’ll have those discussions.”

It was during that moment that Mara expressed a desire to still bring the Penn State product back, telling Schoen that “in a perfect world, I’d still like to have him back.”

Mara had told reporters something similar back in March when he revealed that he told Barkley that he was “sick” over the fact that the Giants were losing him.

Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million deal with a guaranteed $26 million with the Eagles at the opening of free agency.

While the Giants owner expressed a desire to keep Barkley, in the episode Schoen pointed to the need to bolster the offensive line and give quarterback Daniel Jones a fighting chance to succeed next season.

The Giants signed Jones to a massive extension in 2023 before he struggled to open the season and then had to undergo surgery to repair the ACL in his right knee after playing just six games.

“Daniel’s making a lot of money and it’s the fork. We have to figure out, is he the guy, so we have to protect him,” Schoen said. “We need to put resources there. … We’ll have to find a running back, but upgrade the offensive line and give him a chance.”

Schoen then went over several of the potential running back free-agent options that could present themselves once the market opened.

Among the names mentioned was the back eventually tapped to be Barkley’s replacement, veteran running back Devin Singletary.

The Giants third-year general manager predicted there would be “value guys” on the open market.

Schoen’s thinking appeared even clearer in a later scene in which he’s addressing the offseason plan with his football operations staff.

“We have to upgrade the offensive line and you’re paying [Jones] $40 million and it’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back,” Schoen said, addressing the concern that the Giants would be losing a large part of their offense. “My plan is to address the offensive line at some point here in free agency. We’re sitting at six, there’s a chance there’s an offensive weapon there. This is the year for Daniel.”