Let Barkley hit free agency and play for a winning team
NEW YORK — The Giants should let Saquon Barkley go.
The NFL’S window for teams to use the franchise tag opens Tuesday and closes on March 5 at 4 p.m. And the Giants should sit on their hands.
They should let Barkley become a free agent on March 13. They should let Barkley try to be someone else’s Christian Mccaffrey since they don’t believe he can be that for them.
Parting ways would make sense for both the player and the team.
Letting Barkley hit free agency would do right by someone who did right by the Giants last season when he didn’t have to. It would let him find his true value on the open market before it depreciates for good due to his age, 27, and mileage.
Just as importantly, it would give Barkley a chance to win.
So much is being made of the money here. And the money unquestionably matters for what it would represent. But Barkley wants to play in big games.
He wants to make big plays in big games and win championships. He wants to build an on-field legacy suited for someone who has big off-field plans.
Both Barkley and the Giants have referenced the appeal of their running back becoming the next Michael Strahan or Eli Manning, both on the field and off. But Strahan and Manning both won Super Bowls and paraded down the Canyon of Heroes before taking their star media turns.
Barkley has only had a small taste of winning in New York, capturing a road playoff win in Minnesota in 2022. Outside of that, the Giants have been one of the worst teams in the league, including last year’s regression to the NFL’S basement and the No. 6 overall pick.
And this year’s team is trending toward a deeper dive into the depths of the NFC, with potential regime changeover on the horizon depending on how bad it gets.
Barkley does not want to be viewed as someone who ‘wants out’ of New York, because this is home now. And
he is still the face of this franchise. The Giants are a signature part of his brand.
But it would not be disloyal of him to seek greener pastures – the color of money and open fields – at this pivotal juncture of his career. In fact, he would probably grow personally and professionally from spreading his wings somewhere new and seeing the league and the business from a different perspective.
From the Giants’ viewpoint, of course, it is not good business to get rid of good players when the roster has so few difference-makers.
However, GM Joe Schoen simply cannot commit the $12.1 million franchise tag salary to Barkley in 2024 for several reasons. The Giants will have to sign Barkley to a multi-year contract this spring in order to make it work for both sides if he stays.
For one, Schoen only has $19.4 million in cap space at the moment as the offseason gets underway.
He’ll be able to free some more space with other roster moves. But even if Schoen only used the franchise tag on Barkley as a temporary placeholder, he would remove that $12.1 million from his spending power until he resolved Barkley’s long-term contract.