Saquon Barkley Signs Giants Contract, Back in NFC East Fold as Commanders Rival
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Saquon Barkley said some powerful things, some bold words.
00:05 He talked about skipping camp.
00:07 He talked about sitting out the year.
00:08 He said he would consider saying bleep you to the New York Giants over this bitter contract
00:15 dispute centering on his view that his tag offer of $1.1 million or so was unfair.
00:22 But now the Giants, a playoff team a year ago who opened up the 2023 season, playing
00:27 host to the Dallas Cowboys, are actually showing up at training camp.
00:32 And so is Saquon, who early Tuesday morning caved on all his bold statements and agreed
00:38 to a contract that, well, in essence looks a lot like the one that he's been griping
00:43 about.
00:44 Mike Fisher reporting on the Cowboys and the NFL.
00:47 Barkley and the Giants have agreed to a one-year deal now early Tuesday morning, just like
00:50 the tag.
00:51 His salary is a guarantee of $10.091 million, just like the tag.
00:58 There's a $2 million signing bonus wrapped into that.
01:02 It's paid up front.
01:03 That's a nice small wrinkle.
01:05 And there's $900,000 in incentives.
01:09 So that Barkley, should he reach an assortment of milestones, which the Giants would love
01:13 for him to do, he can earn up to $11 million, not 10, but 11.
01:18 But the extra $900,000 is in incentives only and not guaranteed, like the other money is.
01:23 In other words, Barkley, who was offered more than this before July 17th, when the negotiating
01:29 window closed on tag players, did not in the end back up his bold talk with bold action.
01:35 Obviously, he's well within his right to sign whatever contract he wants, whenever contract
01:40 he wants.
01:42 But this is a loss for Saquon Barkley.
01:45 Dallas' Tony Pollard, of course, in a similar situation, he signed his tag offer.
01:50 So he's long been scheduled to make that same $10.091 million.
01:53 Barkley, on the other hand, was helping lead a running back rebellion, a group protesting
02:00 the devaluation of the running back.
02:03 That included a weekend Zoom meeting between Saquon Barkley and Tony Pollard and other
02:12 star running backs in the league, meaningless and empty, as Nick Chubb of the Browns admitted
02:18 after that meeting.
02:19 "Right now, there's nothing we can really do.
02:21 And there is one thing you can do, unfortunately for you, because you're CBA and you're NFL
02:25 PA, your union set it up this way.
02:27 There is one thing you can do.
02:28 You can sign the contract that you're offered."
02:31 And that's what Barkley's done.
02:33 Under NFL rules, there is some flexibility when it comes to a team jumping the tag number,
02:37 and the Giants did that a little bit.
02:40 But to say that the Giants did much here is deceitful.
02:45 $900,000 in unguaranteed, non-guaranteed incentives is not a jump.
02:50 And again, given that the Giants won at some point during negotiations, offered reportedly
02:58 $12 or $13 million a year, a number clearly bigger than this, Barkley bet on himself here
03:04 and he lost.
03:07 Fish out.
03:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]