Giant decisions: Will Saquon Barkley, others receive extensions?

Saquon won’t sign franchise tag?Giants-Eagles holiday affair

Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

During their decade of despair, following their last Super Bowl championship in 2011, the Giants had a telling trend of not re-signing their home-grown players. In some cases, they just wouldn’t match the player’s asking price. In most cases, the players they had drafted just weren’t worth it.

Both their business plan and the quality of their players look a lot different now.

This offseason alone, the Giants re-signed four players from their 10-man, 2019 draft class, giving out new deals or extensions to quarterback Daniel Jones, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, receiver Darius Slayton and edge rusher Oshane Ximines. Though most of the money went to Jones (four years, $160 million) and Lawrence (four years, $90 million), the total investment was $263 million in contracts and more than $133 million in guaranteed money.

That’s astonishing considering that of the 53 players the Giants drafted between 2011 and 2018, only two — receivers Odell Beckham (first-round, 2014) and Sterling Shepard (second round, 2016) — were signed to long-term extensions beyond their rookie contracts. And the Giants are still trying to re-sign another home-grown player, talking Saquon Barkley, their 2018 first-round pick, about the possibility of ripping up his $10.1 million franchise tag and signing a long-term deal.

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It’s a sign of two important things: A more aggressive, proactive business plan by second-year general manager Joe Schoen, and the fact that the Giants have better players on their roster. All four of the recently-signed players were drafted by former GM Dave Gettleman, and they won’t be the last of the Gettleman picks to get a second contract in New York.

So who’s next in line at The Bank of Mara? Here’s a look at some of the bigger financial decisions involving home-grown talent looming for the Giants over the next year or two:

RB Saquon Barkley: His long-awaited contract extension could happen at any time. Or never. It’s hard to say.

Yes, it’s true he turned down an offer of $12.5 million per year at the bye week. Then the Giants pulled that and gave him the $10.1 million franchise tag. Then they resumed talks and increased that offer a bit. But what remains unknown is the amount of guaranteed money in their offers. That’s the only number that really matters, and Barkley obviously doesn’t think what’s been offered is enough.

The issue is his lengthy injury history and the market, which has cratered for running backs. The Giants are perfectly content to let him play out the season on the tag and then just figure it out in early 2024. A second franchise tag (at about $13.7 million) might even be in play for him then. Knowing that, Barkley probably wants guarantees equal to the double tags ($23.8 million). Unfortunately for him, the most any running back was guaranteed in free agency this offseason was the $13 million Miles Sanders got from Carolina.

A financial middle ground is hard to find, but talks are continuing anyway.

Saquon won’t sign franchise tag?

Greg Jennings and Gerald McCoy join Craig Carton to talk about what the future holds in New York for Saquon Barkley.

LT Andrew Thomas: If anyone is going to cut Barkley in line, it’ll be the Giants’ franchise tackle who is absolutely in line to get a blockbuster deal from the team at some point. They have some time. They already picked up his fifth-year option for 2024 (at a cost of $14.1 million). But they are likely to at least open talks sometime during the upcoming season.

It sure would be in the Giants’ best interest to get this done early, since he’s the best offensive lineman they’ve had in a decade and the prices of tackles just keep going up. Right now, Laremy Tunsil is the highest-paid tackle in the league with a deal worth $25 million per season, and he got $60 million guaranteed on a three-year, $75 million deal. Thomas, five years younger at age 24, should easily exceed that, especially since the franchise tag figures to be over $25 million by the time his deal is up in 2025.

Could the Giants convince Thomas to sign early with a Tunsil-sized deal now, even though that could be a bargain in two or three years? Would his history of nagging injuries convince him not to wait? The Giants will at least try to find out.

S Xavier McKinney: It’s a bit of an ominous sign for the 23-year-old McKinney that the Giants let safety Julian Love sign a two-year, $12 million contract with less than $6 million guaranteed and didn’t put up much of a fight. McKinney is probably a better player, but Love was coming off a strong season and had emerged as a team leader.

Could the Giants’ inertia be a sign that Schoen doesn’t see safety as a high-value financial spot?

Even if he is willing to spend on a safety, the value of the position is hard to figure. For a few years there was a trend towards blockbuster deals for safeties. That’s mostly waned in recent years. This past offseason, Jesse Bates got four years, $64 million with $36 million guaranteed from Cincinnati, but the market dissolved behind him.

McKinney’s in the last year of his contract and the franchise tag for safeties is prohibitively high (a projected $18 million in 2024). Maybe the Giants will wait and see if he can stay healthy and duplicate his five-interception, 2021 season before diving into serious talks. But if the Giants are serious about bringing him back, talks will probably have to start before the offseason begins.

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LB Azeez Ojulari: There’s still some time since this second-rounder from 2021 is signed through 2024. He might need to prove he can stay healthy first. The calf and hamstring injuries that limited him to just seven games last season were alarming since he came out of college with some injury red flags.

Still, the Giants have always viewed him as a steal with first-round talent. Then he set a franchise rookie record with eight sacks in 2021 and still had 5.5 more last season in those seven games. They can’t ignore production like that, especially given how expensive edge rushers tend to be on the open market.

So if he has a strong, healthy season, the Giants would be smart to explore the possibility of some kind of extension next offseason, before his asking price gets way too high.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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