Mike Lupica: Saquon Barkley should run away from the Giants and find a star QB to team with
Saquon Barkley was the first Dave Gettleman All-Star, selected with the second overall pick of the 2018 draft by the then-general manager of the Giants. Daniel Jones became the next Gettleman All-Star, taken with the No. 6 pick of the 2019 draft. Jones eventually got paid by the Giants, did he ever, he’s going to make $40 million next season. Barkley, a star running back in a quarterback world, never got paid what he thinks he’s worth. Now he’s about to become an unrestricted free agent, free to run down the open field to the best offer out there.
It is what he should do. Barkley said once, and famously, that he wanted to be a “Giant for Life.” He can’t possibly still think that’s the best thing for his football life. Great Giants rarely leave on their own, not in their prime. He should.
There is still a big chance he ends up back with the Giants. Maybe he and Jones can still team up and play the Giants back into the playoffs, something they did the season before last. It’s just not the way to bet. For now, in the moment, Barkley is the story because the Giants declined putting a franchise tag on him. There’s still the window for him to work out a deal and stay, for him and for them. He should want to go, and be a star running back with a star quarterback, or he’s never going to win a Super Bowl.
Jim Brown, the best running back of them all, won one NFL title, with the ’64 Browns. Walter Payton won one, with the best damn defense anybody had ever seen. Barry Sanders never won. Eric Dickerson never won.
Emmitt Smith was great on the greatest Cowboys team of them all. But he had Troy Aikman. And Michael Irvin. Terrell Davis, also in the Hall of Fame, had himself a night once in Super Bowl XXXII, when the Broncos beat the Packers. He still had John Elway on his side. A lot of bad things have happened to Barkley in Jersey. The fact remains that the Giants are 30 games under .500 since he got with them. Running backs never make all the difference, they just can’t. And don’t. It’s why you don’t take them with the second pick even if they do turn out to be great.
There is nothing fair about what has happened to Barkley here since Gettleman decided to take a running back with the second overall pick, the way the Jets once took another Penn State back, Blair Thomas, back in 1990 (Blair was the Zach Wilson of running backs, then).
But then you better believe Barkley became Offensive Rookie of the Year, with over 2,000 total yards. Even after he hurt his knee, he came back to be the best player on the Giants team that not only made it back to the postseason, but won a playoff game on the road. Without question, he was the best player on that ’22 team. Then Jones became the Gettleman All-Star who got paid. Barkley did not. He certainly must dream about being the kind of centerpiece of a real team the way Christian McCaffrey, son of an old Giant, is with the 49ers. Right now, the Giants aren’t close to being that team. It’s why he might be gone now and Jones might be gone after the season if he doesn’t stay on the field and produce. At which point Giant fans will be talking about Gettleman, not Barkley, not Jones, being the worst pick the Giants have made lately.
Of course, it wasn’t supposed to end up like this, not after the Giants did win that playoff game against the Vikings, the week before they got treated like the junior varsity by an Eagles team on its way to the Super Bowl. Barkley had once again gained over 1,300 rushing yards. He had caught 57 passes. Jones? Even after a season when he’d thrown only 15 touchdown passes in 16 starts, played the game of his life against the Vikings. It turned out to be the first $80 million performance — so far — in all of Giants’ history.
Again and again: Saquon Barkley, at his best, has been a great Giant. He has carried himself like one. He has had the same three head coaches that Jones has had: Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge (another sparkling pick by Gettleman), now Brian Daboll. He sure does have to look across the country, and at the way McCaffrey is used by Kyle Shanahan, and imagine the possibilities of being featured like that, in football circumstances like those. They’re just not the circumstances in which he currently finds himself at MetLife Stadium.
He only just turned 27. He has football miles on him, for sure, because all star running backs do, 1,200 carries so far in his career, nearly 300 receptions. He has come all the way back from ACL reconstruction surgery on his right knee back in 2020. Even last season, in a mess of a season for the Giants, he nearly got back to 1,000 rushing yards despite missing three games.
“[Barkley] is a guy we’d like to have back,” Giants general manager Joe Schoen said before the team made the determination not to franchise Barkley was officially made.
There is absolutely a chance, and a good one, that Barkley could still come back. He may be about to find out that what the Giants paid him last season — about $11 million, all-in — might not be far off from the best deal he can make for himself. He has a business decision to make. So, too, do the Giants in a quarterback world, even though they’ve got quarterback problems, too.
Barkley really has been a great Giant. Great Giants don’t leave. He should. It might not be the best thing for them. But if he can find a quarterback, it is the best thing for him.
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