It’s not often that you’re able to see a team lose a franchise star in real time, but the latest episode of “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants” depicted just that.
Moments ahead of the start of free agency, Giants general manager Joe Schoen circled back with Saquon Barkley’s agent, Ed Berry, to see if they would still allow New York to match any offer the star running back got. Berry told Schoen that the offer the Giants would need to put out was a three-year deal worth $12.5 million per year and $25 million guaranteed.
However, Schoen got the sense that Barkley’s side wasn’t going to honor their commitment to allow them to match the top offer he got on the open market.
“I told the agent, if we match that deal, he’s gonna be a Giant,” Schoen said in a conversation with Giants owner John Mara. “He’s like, ‘Wellll.’ He hemmed and hawwed. He’s like, ‘I’m not saying that. We’ve got a lot of work to do if that happens.'”
When free agency opened later on in the episode, Mara pressed Schoen on where things stood with Barkley. The general manager said that, at the time, the Chicago Bears were “driving the price up” on Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles appeared to be out of the conversation.
“I might have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philly, I’ll tell you that,” Mara responded to Schoen. “I’ve been around enough players. He’s the most popular player we have by far.”
Of course, the Eagles were not out of the conversation. A couple of hours after Schoen’s conversation, Barkley’s agent called back to say that a team had offered more than the original offer that was laid out, but wouldn’t say which team made the offer.
“North of [the original offer]? … We’re out,” Schoen told Berry. “Is it in the division? I’m trying to prepare myself mentally for what’s going to happen.”
New York never made Barkley an offer in the days leading up to free agency and when free agency began.
The Giants were left in the dark about where Barkley was going and…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/hard-knocks-shows-moments-giants-lost-saquon-barkley-traded-brian-burns
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Publish date : 2024-07-17 17:25:40
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