Why Saquon Barkley left Giants, and how the Eagles landed him for Super Bowl run

This is why the Giants let Saquon Barkley walk, and how the Eagles signed him in free agency.

2023 was the year of the running back franchise tag in the National Football League.

That spring three running backs — Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs, and Saquon Barkley — all received that designation from their teams. Pollard received the non-exclusive franchise tag from the Dallas Cowboys after making his first career Pro Bowl. Jacobs, who led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards the prior year, also received the non-exclusive franchise tag from the Raiders.

As for Barkley, he received the non-exclusive franchise tag after rushing for a career-high 1,321 yards in 2022 with the New York Giants.

While Pollard eventually played under the franchise tag before signing a new four-year deal with the Tennessee Titans in free agency last March, both Jacobs and Barkley eventually signed new one-year deals with their current teams when they could not reach an agreement on long-term deals. Barkley wound up signing a one-year deal with the Giants worth up to $11 million, along with a $2 million signing bonus.

The deal also gave Barkley the chance to hit free agency at the end of the 2023-2024 season.

While Barkley and the Giants enjoyed a magical season in 2022 — advancing to the playoffs and defeating the Minnesota Vikings on Wild Card Weekend — 2023 was a much different story for New York. The Giants crashed back to Earth with a 6-11 record, finishing third in the NFC East. Quarterback Daniel Jones (more on him in a moment) suffered a knee injury early in the year and while backup quarterback Tommy DeVito provided a brief spark, New York floundered in 2023.

As for Barkley, he could not duplicate the big numbers he posted in 2022 and headed into the offseason, and free agency, facing an uncertain future in New York.

Thanks to HBO’s Hard Knocks, NFL fans were taken behind the scenes when Barkley’s future in blue was decided.

An episode of that show from this summer revealed the conversation between Barkley and Giants general manager Joe Schoen, wherein Schoen invited Barkley to test the open market to “see what [his] value is:”

“I just talked to Ed Berry,” Schoen said, referencing Barkley’s agent. “And I think, just mulling over this, the right thing to do is let you test the market and see what your value is. I don’t want to do the franchise thing, or all that again, I don’t want to go through that, we’ve both been through that. If you really want to be a Giant for life and you’re interested in staying here and coming back, just see what your market is and have Ed come back to us and we’ll see if we can come to an agreement.”

The general manager then asked Barkley if he could have his “word” on coming back to the Giants before signing with another team, and the running back made his preferred stance clear.

“I mean, I already told you where I want to be, so...” Barkley replied before trailing off.

“Alright let’s do that and see what the market says,” countered Schoen. “I think it’s the right thing to do. I love you man, and I appreciate everything you did for the organization the two years I was here, and I’m not saying we’re not gonna get something done but I think it’s right that if for some reason it doesn’t work out that you know that the organization thinks the world of you and everything you’ve done.”

Speaking after that episode aired, Barkley described that call as the moment he knew his time in New York was “over.”

“It was over after that phone call, in my opinion,” Barkley said on an episode of the Scoop City podcast in July. “It was over after that, because I never in my heart truly believed that they were going to match it, and that they only wanted me for a lower price. So, no matter what, I probably wasn’t going to go back. Like I know my agent went back and talked to them and we gave them the opportunity to match, but the whole time I already removed myself from that.”

He also called the Giants’ approach of letting him test the open market a “slap in the face.”

“I felt like the Giants thought I would go out there and get ($9 million a year), maybe eight, stretch at 10, and then come back to them and it’s like ‘Alright, we got you. If you want to come play at ($9 million), you come play at ($9 million), which I think that truly would have got it done,” Barkley said. “I think that’s just where they valued me at, where Joe valued me at. He had a price point that he was willing to pay, and he wasn’t going to go over it, and kudos to him for sticking to his gut.

“I kind of felt like it was a little disrespectful, to be honest, because it’s kind of like a slap in the face. ‘You go see what you are worth, and if you are worth that, we’ll see if you’re worth it and maybe we’ll match it.’”

Instead, Barkley found greener pastures, literally and figuratively. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, putting pen to paper on a three-year, $37.75 million contract with $26 million fully guaranteed.

That move seems to have paid off. Behind the Eagles’ talented offensive line, Barkley has put up the best season of his career. Barkley broke the 2,000 rushing yards mark, exploding for 2,005 yards on 345 attempts for 13 touchdowns, all of which represent career-best marks.

He is also in the Super Bowl for the first time in his career, and was named a finalist for league MVP honors. He also secured All-Pro honors for the first time in his career.

There is of course another layer to this, which leads us back to Daniel Jones. Following the 2022 season the Giants faced contract decisions on both Jones and Barkley. While Jones ultimately signed a four-year extension worth up to $160 million, Barkley ended up with the franchise tag after turning down a three-year contract with just $19.5 million guaranteed.

That math was put into clear light in another moment from Hard Knocks, where Schoen quipped that when it comes to Jones, “[y]ou’re paying the guy $40 million. It’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back.”

Jones is, as you might recall, now on the Minnesota Vikings. And he, like the rest of us, will be watching Barkley in the Super Bowl with the Eagles.

You might understand if the Giants fans in your life will be watching something else.