Beat writer shares how Giants, Saquon Barkley could make a deal

New York Giants beat writer and NFL columnist Pat Leonard remains confident the team will work things out with star running back Saquon Barkley before Monday's deadline for teams to sign franchise-tagged players.

"As much as the Giants and Barkley have ratcheted up the rhetoric in recent days, with dueling leaks about a possible holdout and contract offers and guaranteed money, it still would be [a] surprise if they didn’t agree to a contract extension by 3:59:59 p.m. [ET] Monday," Leonard said about the situation for a piece published Friday. 

Depending on the latest update one wants to believe, Barkley's camp allegedly rejected a contract worth $13M per year and that included $26M over the deal's first two seasons because the 26-year-old instead wanted closer to $16M per campaign. After the Giants reportedly pulled that initial offer, they may or may not have submitted a proposal that included $19.5M guaranteed. 

Barkley is on track to earn $10.091M on the tag for 2023 unless the Giants give him a one-year raise later this summer assuming the sides don't come to an agreement before Monday afternoon. Leonard's idea for a solution involves the club matching or exceeding the price of this year's tag combined with the tag for the 2024 season. 

"It should be as simple as this: getting Barkley to around $13M per year with at least $22.2M total guaranteed," Leonard explained. "Barkley consistently has expressed frustration with the perception that he has already turned down that type of deal. He has not. The guaranteed money hasn’t reached the $22.2M level that he would make if he played on consecutive franchise tags in 2023 and 2024."

Leonard and CBS Sports personality Joel Corry previously suggested Giants co-owner John Mara could eventually get involved if Mara thought general manager Joe Schoen was legitimately risking the club being without arguably its most marketable offensive star through Week 1. In Friday's column, Leonard noted that Mara won't want "a summer’s worth of drama that might drag into the fall." 

As Leonard mentioned, Schoen finalized the agreement with quarterback Daniel Jones minutes, not hours, before the March deadline for teams to use their franchise tags. Unless something changes, fans shouldn't expect the Giants and Barkley to sign anything of note over the weekend.