Joe Schoen discusses contract talks with Saquon Barkley, being unable to meet in the middle

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has been participating in New York Giants camp for the past few weeks now, which wasn’t always a guarantee this offseason. The star running back was franchise tagged in March, which he did not sign for months as both sides negotiated a contract extension.

Barkley and the Giants could not reach an agreement by the July 17 deadline, with talks of him holding out during training camp and potentially during the regular season looming. Barkley eventually signed a one-year deal worth up to $11 million with the team ahead of training camp. And on ‘The Rich Eisen Show’, Eisen asked Giants general manager Joe Schoen how close they were to agreeing to an extension and what ‘a couple million dollars’ means relative to a player the caliber of Barkley.

“That’s funny you say a couple millions dollars, I’ve been in this situation before where a player says that. ‘What’s a couple million dollars? It means more to me than to the franchise, you’ve got this big cap number.’ Then say fast forward a month later and there’s a player that we’d like to sign that’s $2 million and we can’t,” Schoen explained. “So every dollar you give somebody you can’t give to somebody else.”

Ryan Dunleavy of the ‘New York Post‘ reported that New York’s contract offer was within $1 million to $2 million of Barkley’s reduced asking price, which apparently is money that Schoen and the organization would rather keep to potentially pay another player down the road.

You could argue that no single player on the Giants was more worthy of an extension than Barkley, who represented 40% of the team’s offense last season with 1,312 rushing yards, 338 receiving yards, and 10 touchdowns. But according to Schoen, Barkley’s contract disagreements had more to do with the team’s salary cap situation and less with Barkley and the extension he was seeking.

“And that’s not necessarily the case here, but you do have to operate under a salary cap. I’ve said it before, I wish we didn’t, you could pay everybody. That would be awesome,” Schoen said. “But there’s different rules we have to operate under and it’s not just about one player, you’re trying to build a team with 53 and try to manage that the best way you can.”

Barkley joins many other running backs who dealt with offseason contract disputes, as the position being devalued as a whole will continue to loom across several franchises, including the Giants, moving forward.