Report: New York Giants Best Offer To Saquon Barkley Was Comically Low

Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants have officially reached an impasse.

At least, that’s what it would appear.

Barkley, who had a bounce back season and made his second career Pro Bowl, played out the final year of his rookie contract in 2022.

The Giants, unwilling to commit to a long-term deal for significant money, opted to use the franchise tag on their superstar running back. The deal would pay Barkley $10.1 million in 2023. New York would then need to either agree to a long-term deal, use the exclusive franchise tag on him, or let Barkley walk in 2024.

But there’s just one problem. Barkley will not sign the franchise tag that the organization placed on him.

Both sides have spoken publicly about wanting to get a long-term deal done. But the sides appear far apart on the value of said long-term deal.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the Giants offered Barkley a two-year, $26 million deal which he refused. But Barkley immediately refuted that claim.

Now a new report, this time from Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, states that the Giants were only willing to guarantee $19.5 million to their star back.

That’s nearly $3 million less than what Barkley would stand to make should he play on the franchise tag for the next two seasons before becoming a free agent in 2025.

For context, the number is also far short of the guaranteed money given to some of the NFL’s top running backs in recent years.

At this point, fans were just happy to see some concrete reporting on how much guaranteed money the Giants were offering.

Barkley dealt with injuries throughout his first five NFL season. He tore his ACL in 2020 and missed almost the entire campaign.

But when he’s been healthy, he’s been almost the entirely of the New York offense. So at some point, one side is going to have to blink.