Super Bowl MVP: Giants' Saquon Barkley should've taken the money

Former running back Ottis Anderson earned Super Bowl XXV Most Valuable Player honors with the New York Giants and believes Saquon Barkley should've taken the money offered by the club this offseason. 

"That’s what’s scary about negotiating and listening to people in your corner, which is what you’re supposed to do," Anderson recently told Giants beat writer Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. "But there comes a point in time where you got to man up and make your own decision. You had money on the table, more than you got now, now you got less, now you might not play at all, so now what happens?" 

Barkley's camp and the Giants reportedly were close in contract talks but couldn't come to an agreement before last Monday's deadline for teams to sign franchise-tagged players to long-term deals. Schwartz noted that "the last Giants' offer Barkley rejected approached $23M in guaranteed money," and the 26-year-old now is on track to earn $10.091M on the franchise tag for the upcoming season. While Barkley could forfeit 1/17th of that cash for each regular-season game he sits out, most insiders expect he'll report to the team in time to play against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 on Sept. 10. 

As for Anderson, he played in the NFL from 1979 through the 1992 season and is quite familiar with the beatings running backs take each campaign. He also understands the market regarding veteran ball-carriers in the pass-heavy modern league. 

"Two years from now, he’ll be in his seventh year, and that’s when most teams let go of running backs," Anderson added about Barkley. "I wish him luck, but management is looking at it totally differently than how Barkley is looking at it. Management is saying you were great your rookie year, then you had two years or three years in between where you were injured and then you had a great year last year. So they’re looking at it out of five years you only had three good years." 

Barkley hasn't yet signed the tag and, thus, cannot be fined for missing training camp practices. The Giants likely will use such sessions to get fifth-round draft pick Eric Gray ready for preseason action that begins for Big Blue when the club plays at the Detroit Lions on Aug. 11. 

"You don’t want them to let somebody else in that front door because those kids are hungry too and they’re getting a lot less money than you’re getting," Anderson said about Barkley gifting Gray with opportunities to impress. 

As recently as Sunday night, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio mentioned the Giants can give Barkley a higher one-year salary than what he's currently owed and also promise they won't tag him next March to get him back with the team as soon as possible. There's no indication general manager Joe Schoen is considering such an approach as of Monday afternoon.