If it have been as much as Giants proprietor John Mara, Saquon Barkley should still have been a member of Huge Blue.
Whereas the opening episode of “Onerous Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants” bounced round to quite a few offseason points that Joe Schoen and the Giants mind belief confronted, the departure of the 2018 first-round choose performed a central function all through the 40-minute episode.
Essentially the most telling second got here throughout a Feb. 13 dialog between Schoen and Mara on the Giants facility in East Rutherford.
The HBO cameras captured a frank dialogue between the 2 over what franchise tagging Barkley would actually accomplish and whether or not there could be a commerce marketplace for Barkley in the event that they determined to go that route.
“What are we actually gonna get until it received right down to $7 million? I don’t need to supply that as a result of I don’t need to be like we ‘disrespected him,’ ” Schoen mentioned throughout the dialog. “There’s 31 groups and it solely takes one to possibly be open to doing one thing. If it doesn’t get to that then, hey, we’re going to allow you to hit free company. Discover out your market, come again and tell us if we will match it. If we will, we’ll have these discussions.”
It was throughout that second that Mara expressed a need to nonetheless convey the Penn State product again, telling Schoen that “in an ideal world, I’d nonetheless prefer to have him again.”
Mara had informed reporters one thing comparable again in March when he revealed that he informed Barkley that he was “sick” over the truth that the Giants have been shedding him.
Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million cope with a assured $26 million with the Eagles on the opening of free company.
Whereas the Giants proprietor expressed a need to maintain Barkley, within the episode Schoen pointed to the necessity to bolster the offensive line and provides quarterback Daniel Jones a preventing probability to succeed subsequent season.
The Giants signed Jones to an enormous extension in 2023 earlier than he struggled to open the season after which needed to bear surgical procedure to restore the ACL in his proper knee after taking part in simply six video games.
“Daniel’s making some huge cash and it’s the fork. We have now to determine, is he the man, so now we have to guard him,” Schoen mentioned. “We have to put sources there. … We’ll need to discover a working again, however improve the offensive line and provides him an opportunity.”
Schoen then went over a number of of the potential working again free-agent choices that might current themselves as soon as the market opened.
Among the many names talked about was the again finally tapped to be Barkley’s substitute, veteran working again Devin Singletary.
The Giants third-year normal supervisor predicted there could be “worth guys” on the open market.
Schoen’s pondering appeared even clearer in a later scene during which he’s addressing the offseason plan together with his soccer operations workers.
“We have now to improve the offensive line and also you’re paying [Jones] $40 million and it’s to not hand the ball off to a $12 million again,” Schoen mentioned, addressing the priority that the Giants could be shedding a big a part of their offense. “My plan is to deal with the offensive line sooner or later right here in free company. We’re sitting at six, there’s an opportunity there’s an offensive weapon there. That is the 12 months for Daniel.”