Saquon Barkley Calls Giants Contract Talks ‘Disrespectful’ and ‘A Slap in the Face’

The New York Giants made Saquon Barkley one of the faces of their franchise when they selected him with the No. 2 overall pick of the 2018 NFL draft, but the running back felt disrespected they didn’t do everything they could to keep him in that role when he hit free agency after six years.

“I kind of felt like it was kind of a little disrespectful, to be honest,” he said during a conversation with Dianna Russini of The Athletic that was released Tuesday (23:20 mark) when discussing New York having him go find offers and then come back to see if it would match it. “It’s kind of like a slap in the face.”

Barkley ended up signing with the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles.

The running back’s future with the team was a major talking point ahead of the 2023 campaign when the Giants decided to reward quarterback Daniel Jones with a long-term deal and place the franchise tag on Barkley to prevent him from hitting the open market.

The Penn State product ultimately didn’t sign the tag, and the two sides agreed to a one-year contract to prevent a lengthy holdout.

He finished that one year with 962 yards and six touchdowns on the ground to go with 41 catches for 280 yards and four touchdowns as a receiver. His 3.9 yards per carry represented a dropoff from the 4.4 he posted as a Pro Bowler in 2022, and he was also unable to eclipse his career-high 1,312 rushing yards from the previous season.

Perhaps the Giants were concerned about the decrease in production for the 27-year-old, and a conversation between Barkley and general manager Joe Schoen that was revealed in HBO’s Hard Knocks made it clear where the team stood.

“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 thing, or all that again, I don’t want to go through that, we’ve both been through that,” Schoen said. “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 have Ed come back to us and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement.”

From his perspective, Barkley told Russini he knew his tenure with New York was over following that phone call in large part because “I never in my heart truly believed that they were going to match it.”

Philadelphia saw an opportunity to both bolster its own offense and hurt the Giants in the process and ended up signing Barkley to a three-year, $37.75 million contract, which wasn’t a surprise to the veteran.

“And then come to find out when I hit the open market what I thought would happen, or I believed in myself what would happen, actually happened,” he told Russini.

“A lot of teams that were about it, were really sending true offers and wanted me to come and play for the team. So then that felt good because it was like, alright, like I feel like the Giants thought I was going to go out there and get nine, maybe eight, stretch to 10, and then I’ll come back to them and it’s ‘alright, well, we got you if you want to come play at nine, you can play at nine,’ which I think that’s truly what would have got it done. I think that’s just where they valued me at, or Joe valued me at.”

He also said the Giants weren’t even in his top-three teams when he made his final decision after what was a stressful process.

“With me, you know, they could sit there and Joe, he made a comment, said that it took 10 years off his life,” Barkley said. “Like, if it took 10 years off your life, what do you think it did for me?”

He is ready to move on at this point.

“But that’s in the past,” Barkley said. “I don’t really care about that because ultimately, like, I got tagged, played for the $10 million, and then I end up getting more money. Like, I end up, like, that’s why you can’t, like at the time, it seemed like it was a disaster. And I’m like, oh, man, like, I gotta do this, but in reality, like, I better myself. And I came out on top in that scenario.”

Losing Barkley will be even more difficult for New York if he ends up thriving with the Eagles, which is a realistic possibility considering opposing defenses have to account for far more talented playmakers than they did when they stacked the box to stop him with the Giants.

Defenses will only be able to bring so many people toward the line of scrimmage with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith on the outside and Jalen Hurts running the show under center.

It is Super Bowl or bust for Philadelphia this season, and Barkley figures to be a major part of that pursuit.