Saquon Barkley would not be anywhere near approaching the NFL’s rushing record if the Giants re-signed him.
OK, now that everyone agrees on that point: It still was a significant mistake by the Giants to miss four different windows dating back to November 2022 to get a deal done with Barkley — most notably haggling over the NFL’s version of salary-cap chump change in July 2023 — and essentially deliver the eventual 2,000-yard rusher to the rival Eagles.
The trajectory of the Giants’ path changed on March 7, 2023, when the Giants opted to pay $82 million guaranteed on a $160 million extension to quarterback Daniel Jones rather than raise the guarantee in Barkley’s offer from about $19 million to about $24 million over three years and thus clear the franchise tag to be used on Jones to return for a prove-it season. Barkley was tagged.
“They forgot how they got to the playoffs in 2022,” one NFC executive told The Post. “It wasn’t because of the quarterback.”