Getty Image / David Berding
Monday afternoon, the contract situations of Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs officially left them with two options.
After not getting contract extensions done before the deadline, the two men can either play next season on the franchise tag or sit out for the full year.
On Monday, one of those running backs revealed they are at least considering the second option.
During an appearance on the “Money Matters” podcast, Saquon made it clear that he could decide not to play a down of football for the New York Giants in 2023.
Episode 2 featuring @saquon is live on all streaming platforms:
iTunes: https://t.co/4jDLPAVDvV
Spotify: https://t.co/DjLj2tmZnH
Youtube: https://t.co/Eh6hMOfjYY https://t.co/L23YNG8YmQ— The Money Matters Podcast (@moneymatterzpod) July 17, 2023
“My leverage is I could say, ‘f*** you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘f*** you to my teammates,'” Barkley said. “And be like, ‘You want me to show you my worth? You want me to show you how valuable I am to the team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a down.’ And that’s a play I could use.”
Unfortunately for Barkley, his ability to sit out the season doesn’t really give him any leverage because he’d be hurting himself a whole lot more than he’d be hurting the Giants.
If Barkley holds out, the Giants will find another running back for this season. It could be Kenyan Drake. It could be Kareem Hunt. If Dalvin Cook signs in Miami, either Raheem Mostert or Jeff Wilson will likely become available. Maybe they’d even offer the Falcons a trade for Tyler Allgeier now that they have Bijan Robinson.
Any one of those options would be a whole lot cheaper than Barkley and a few of them had very successful seasons last year.
Meanwhile, sitting out for the year would cost Saquon Barkley just over $10 million and would probably make it more difficult for him to get the deal he’s looking for next year. It would also cost him a year of his career at a position that doesn’t have too many years to earn money.
The whole football world saw how this played out when Le’Veon Bell tried it.
The running back market is arguably worse now than it was back in 2018.
It’s not surprising that Saquon Barkley is frustrated with this situation and the New York Giants’ organization, but the best move for him right now is still to play out this season and try to get a contract he can be happy with in a year, even if it doesn’t come from the Giants.