Giants, Saquon Barkley running up against key deadline

The Giants and Saquon Barkley are racing against the clock to get a long-term deal done this offseason. If not, there are very rocky waters ahead.

The story of the New York Giants offseason centered on their two top-performing players of 2022: Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. New York settled up things nicely with Jones, even if the franchise paid him more than what he was worth.

Due to the nature of Barkley’s position, however, the Giants may not be so keen to follow that same path when looking at a long-term extension for the star running back.

The Giants and Barkley have a little less than a month to agree on a potential multi-year extension. The exact deadline is July 17. After that, Barkley can only receive one-year deals.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio explained the process of turning a franchise tender (the Giants franchise-tagged him back in March) into a multi-year deal. Teams would normally add up the first and second franchise tags, the sum of which would be the player’s amount of fully guaranteed money at signing.

But such a procedure would only give Barkley roughly $22 million in fully guaranteed money in the first two years.

Saquon Barkley and Giants have until July 17 to negotiate a long-term deal

The 2018 No. 2 overall pick may be seeking a much higher number, especially given Barkley’s latest comments on the de-valued state of the running back market.

Barkley is already opting out of mandatory minicamp this summer and didn’t rule out the possibility of sitting out for the 2023 season. He also took shots at the Giants for making him look greedy to the public for wanting a bigger contract.

It would be in Barkley’s and the Giants’ best interests to get a fair deal done — but what is fair?

Jason Fitzgerald, founder of Over the Cap, believes Barkley could command a deal similar to that of Titans’ Derrick Henry, a four-year, $50 million deal with $13.5 million guaranteed. That feels unlikely considering Barkley turned down a multi-year extension worth $12.5 million per year during the 2022 season.

Barkley appears to be gunning for more guaranteed money and a fair restructure, and it’ll be up to the Giants’ front office to place a monetary value on exactly how much the running back is worth to them.

In the meantime, don’t expect Barkley to show up to any Giants activities until July 17. This contract standoff could get ugly.