RB Saquon Barkley Post Failed Contract Negotiants Is Contemplating Sitting Out This Season

Running backs had a disappointing Monday as three franchise-tagged Pro Bowlers — Josh Jacobs of the Las Vegas Raiders, Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants, and Tony Pollard of the Dallas Cowboys — failed to sign long-term second NFL contracts with their respective teams before the deadline for doing so.

RB Saquon Barkley Post Failed Contract Negotiants Is Contemplating To Sitting Out This Season

This implies that without the long-term security of a multi-year contract, all three players are expected to play the following 2023 season on fully guaranteed one-year contracts of $10.1 million. The thought of that has Barkley, the No. 2 overall choice in the 2018 NFL Draft, pondering the nuclear option: sitting out and not participating in 2023. Barkley and the G-Men were roughly $2 million apart in their contract discussions.

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It appears that Barkley believed the organization made a considerably lower initial offer in an effort to capitalize on his injury history.

The Giants running back at least said as much on the Money Matters podcast earlier this week.

“I got offered [a deal] during the bye week,” said Barkley. “In the bye we only had like three days. I wasn’t gonna accept it. I was like, ‘You know what, I rather kind of just finish off the season.’ The number that they offered me, they kind of thought I might jump out because of my injury history.”

“My leverage is I could say, ‘f— you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘f— you to my teammates,'” Barkley said Monday after the deadline to sign a new contract on an episode of “The Money Matters” podcast on YouTube. “And be like, ‘You want me to show you my worth? You want me to show you how valuable I am to the team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a down.’ And that’s a play I could use.”

“Anybody [who] knows me, knows that’s not something I want to do. Is it something that’s crossed my mind? I never thought I would ever do that, but now I’m at a point where I’m like, ‘Jesus, I might have to take it to this level.’ Am I prepared to take it to this level? I don’t know.

“That’s something I have to sit down and talk to my family, talk to my team [of advisers] and strategize about this. Can’t just go off of emotions.”

Barkley also said, “I can try to get as much money as I can, but what really matters is winning. I know if I’m able to help bring a championship to New York, that’s going to go miles more

“I believe I’m the best running back in the NFL,” Barkley said at the time. “I’m not even asking for what I’m worth.”

During the bye week of the previous season, sources informed The Post that Barkley rejected a $13 million per year deal with a $19.5 million guaranteed component.

Barkley reaffirmed that he would never settle for less than the $22.5 million guaranteed, as The Post had previously reported.

 

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