Giants refused bold Saquon Barkley request during 2023 contract standoff

Long before running back Saquon Barkley became the reigning Offensive Player of the Year en route to helping the Philadelphia Eagles win Super Bowl LIX, he and the New York Giants were involved in a lengthy contract dispute after the Giants secured his rights for 2023 via the non-exclusive franchise tag.

On Thursday, Amazon Prime Video will unveil the "Saquon" documentary on the same day that Barkley and the 4-1 Eagles will face the 1-4 Giants at MetLife Stadium. Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post got an early look at the project and shared on Tuesday that Barkley asked Giants co-owner John Mara for a trade on the final day for franchise-tagged players to sign long-term extensions in July 2023. 

What John Mara said to Saquon Barkley about trade request

"I’m not going to do that," Mara told Barkley. "That makes no sense for us. To be honest with you, it’s not going to be in your long-term best interest to do that. There’s no way that I would allow that at this point. You are too valuable to this franchise."

Previous reports noted that the Giants negotiated with Barkley's camp regarding a possible contract extension from the bye week in November 2022 up until the club signed quarterback Daniel Jones to a four-year contract in March 2023. That deal allowed the Giants to use the franchise tag on Barkley, and he later threatened to sit games out if he failed to secure a long-term contract.

Barkley ultimately signed an adjusted one-year tag to report to training camp on time in July 2023. 

Giants "spit" in Saquon Barkley's face in 2022

Coming off the bye week in the fall of 2022, Barkley accumulated 152 rushing yards and a touchdown on 35 carries to help the Giants earn a 24-16 win over the Houston Texans. The documentary shows he was less-than-thrilled about how things played out at the time. 

"It was a joke," Barkley explained. "It really was a spit in my face. And then come out here and give me the ball 35 times. They really don’t appreciate me, to be completely honest. They think they are trying to run me into the dirt, get what they can get and then hopefully something bad happens so he can (expletive) go somewhere else."

The Giants let Barkley reach free agency in March 2024, and he received a three-year, $37.75M contract with $26M fully guaranteed from the Eagles. More recently, he inked a two-year, $41M extension that included $36M guaranteed at signing shortly after he became a Super Bowl champion.