New York Giants: Saquon Barkley Expected To Get The Biggest RB Contract

New York Giants, Saquon Barkley
Jul 25, 2019; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) talks with the media before the first day of training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

It costs to keep talent in the NFL, and the New York Giants aren’t going to be able to escape that fact. The team is building around a young core and has a limited window to turn things around results wise before it’s time to pay up for certain players, and if some of these players walk away in free agency for bigger deals, the fans aren’t going to be happy with team management.

Saquon Barkley is probably the best example of this simple fact. Assuming the Giants choose to pick up his fifth year option, the window that they have to win before Barkley is an unrestricted free agent will last until 2023. But the subject is already being discussed in 2020, with Christian McCaffrey’s large new contract serving as a baseline for what the Giants can expect to pay down the line.

If they want to keep Barkley, they’re going to have to pay a premium. According to The Athletic, they’ll likely have to pay Barkley more than any other running back in the league is making right now.

“I don’t think the Giants can escape a monster contract unless Barkley has a poor year,” [Over the Cap’s Jason] Fitzgerald said. “Christian McCaffrey getting a monster contract with Carolina pretty much sets the stage that Barkley will be the highest-paid running back.”

Projected contract: 4 years, $70 million

That deal would be even bigger than the deal McCaffrey has with the Panthers, making Barkley the highest paid running back in NFL history. The price is also the reason why there’s some support within the fanbase for moving on from Barkley entirely rather than signing him to a new contract – it’s not the majority opinion yet, but it’s becoming a more common one.

The move that the Giants make, of course, will probably depend on the team position and their salary cap situation by the time Barkley is due to become an unrestricted free agent. If Barkley is the centerpiece of a winning team that’s rebounded from the poor years in the past, there will be more of a case to make him the most paid running back ever. If the Giants are still in a rebuilding stage, however, there may just be more sentiment to press the reset button rather than tying up a great amount of cap space by keeping him around.

All of this is still on the horizon rather than an immediate issue, but with Barkley being the team’s arguable best player at the moment, it’s only natural that this offseason the matter is already being discussed by fans and experts.