Saquon Barkley gets a new deal with Giants, avoids potential holdout
Former Penn State running back Saquon Barkley will report to New York Giants training camp with a new contract in hand, thus avoiding any possible holdout drama approaching the start of the 2023 NFL season. The Giants and Barkley agreed on a new one-year contract that will increase Barkley’s pay from what would have been a franchise tag season, but his future still remains a question to sort through for the Giants in the next offseason.
As reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Barkley’s one-year deal with the Giants is valued up to $11 million and includes a signing bonus of $2 million. As noted by Albert Breer of MMQB, Barley’s deal includes $910,000 in incentives, which means his base salary is equal to what would have been the franchise tag value of just over $10 million for the 2023 season.
So Barkley will be paid this season and he will not miss any game action, voluntarily. All seems to be good, for now, but we could go in this cycle one more time a year from now. The Giants will have the option of placing a franchise tag on Barkley again next offseason. Considering how well this round went, that would clearly be something Barkley doesn’t want to deal with next year.
Barkley is coming off his fifth year with the Giants, the team that drafted him with the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft. Last year, Barkley helped the Giants end through playoff drought and advance past the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC wild-card round. Barkley ended his 2022 season with a career-high 1,312 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns with 1,650 total yards from scrimmage.
In five seasons, Barkley has rushed for 4,249 yards and scored 29 touchdowns despite essentially missing the entire 2020 season due to a torn ACL.
Barkley ended his Penn State career with 3,843 rushing yards, 43 rushing touchdowns, 1,195 receiving yards, and eight receiving touchdowns. Barkley also had 500 career kickoff return yards with two touchdowns.
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