Why Giants weren’t even in Saquon Barkley’s final three free agent suitors before he chose Eagles

The Giants weren’t even in Saquon Barkley’s final three teams when he deliberated about where to sign in free agency this spring.

Barkley already had moved on mentally once GM Joe Schoen told him to bring back his best offer on the open market, rather than putting a Giants contract on the table first.

“When I sat down with my family and we were making the decision to see where we were gonna go, and pick out of the three teams where we had our final three, the Giants weren’t one of those three,” Barkley told The Athletic’s Dianna Russini on the “Scoop City” podcast .

“It was over after that phone call, in my opinion,” Barkley said of the call shown in HBO’s “Hard Knocks” between him and Schoen. “It was over after that. Because I never in my heart truly believed they were gonna match it, or they only wanted me for a lower price. So no matter what, I probably wasn’t going to go back. I know my agent went back  … and we gave them the opportunity would [they] match, but I had already removed myself from that.

“They weren’t really in play, I guess you could say,” he said of the final decision.

Barkley’s final three suitors were believed to be the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Chicago Bears. He called it a “no-brainer” to pick Philly in the end based on several factors, including the chance to compete for a championship and its proximity to his family.

He landed a three-year, $37.75 million contract with $26 million guaranteed, including $24.5 guaranteed in the first two years of the contract. And that validated his belief that the Giants never were truly an option down the stretch.

“I felt like the Giants thought I was gonna go out there and get nine [million], maybe eight, stretch it 10, and then I’ll come back to them and then it’s like, ‘Alright we got you, if you want to come play at nine, you can come play at nine,’” he said. “I think that truly would have got[ten] it done. I think that’s where they valued me at — or Joe valued me at.”

“He had a price point where he was willing to pay and he wasn’t going to go over to, and kudos to him for sticking to his gut,” Barkley continued. “But that’s how I feel. And I kind of felt it was kind of a little disrespectful, to be honest, because it’s kind of a slap in the face. You go see what you are worth, and then if you’re worth that, we’ll see if you’re worth it and maybe we’ll match it.”

Barkley admitted he had “no idea” he was being recorded for a behind-the-scenes “Hard Knocks” episode when he was on the phone with Schoen. But after, once he and the agent found out about the show’s production, he was able to screen some of the scenes before they aired.

He likes the show. He simply thinks it has overplayed how serious of an option the Giants were at the end.

“I think ‘Hard Knocks’ did a really good job,” he said. “In real life, to me, there wasn’t a lot of conversations with the Giants this offseason. We talked once after the season, and then the phone call that everyone’s seen with me and Joe, that was really the only two conversations I had with them. And then afterwards had a conversation when I signed to Philly.”

Barkley said he understood the business side of Schoen’s decision, though, from a roster building perspective.

“Even [last year], we never got the sense that [Schoen] truly valued my position. And that’s OK. I’m fine with that,” Barkley said. “Because … looking at the New York Giants, is it more important to go out there and get three offensive linemen, or spend that money — or get one maybe two — and try to spend it on Saquon? It’s what you want, what you value as your team.

“I don’t think the New York Giants are San Fran, Philly, Houston or some of these teams where they might be a running back away — or one key player away — from making it to the next step,” the running back explained. “And if that’s what they believed in, and they chose to do that, then I’m fine with that. All I asked was for me to get my own opportunity to go … get the most money I could possibly get, and they gave me that.”

Barkley said the Giants were so out of the picture in the end that his agent played a prank on him that they’d actually jumped back in at the last minute.

“My agent played a prank on me. Basically the number I had, he was like, ‘They matched it, they even went better,’” he said. “And I dropped the phone and was like ‘oh my God.’ But he was laughing, it was a joke because he was like, ‘no, they’re out.’ And we just started focusing on the new.”

He explained how his contract dispute with the Giants got to this point from his perspective: He didn’t appreciate how the Giants used the leverage of their franchise tag on him in 2023. He felt like they didn’t give him much of a choice.

“I never felt like we got a fair negotiation once we got tagged,” he said. “They sent me something before the tag deadline, and [I] didn’t agree with it. [I] felt like the guaranteed money wasn’t there. All I asked was I’m fine with this contract, can we just guarantee the first two years? They tagged me. I was like, ‘I already know how this is gonna go.’ Joe was like, ‘I’ll talk to ownership, we’ll get back to you.’ And then crickets.

Barkley said his frustration “wasn’t that they paid Daniel” Jones and not him. He just wanted the same negotiation as the team’s other key pieces and didn’t feel he received that under the tag.

“They paid Daniel, they paid AT [Andrew Thomas], they paid Dex[ter Lawrence]. They got everybody done that felt like was a key part of why they made it to the playoffs and why we were a successful team that year,” Barkley said. “With me, they could sit there — and Joe made a comment [on “Hard Knocks”] and said it took 10 years off his life. If it took 10 years off your life, what do you think it did for me? They made offers to me, but I never really got a true negotiation.”

Barkley seemed to be in a good emotional place during the interview, though, which he said he was using to close the New York “chapter” and hopefully move on.

He said the “Snake-quon” nickname that some Giants fans have given him on social media is “hilarious.” He also said that in person, Giants fans are much nicer than they are on the internet.

“It’s only on Twitter,” he said. “Any Giant fan that I’ve ever met in person, it’s always love. They say, ‘Thank you for the last six years, you’re awesome to watch, you gave your all, but I can’t root for you for those two weeks.’ I’m like, ‘I respect that.’”

Interestingly, though, Barkley admitted that he actually underestimated what the fan reaction would be when he chose the rival Eagles. He was warned, but he said he didn’t fully recognize how big of a deal it would be.

“My whole management team was like, ‘This is gonna stir some s–t,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Bro, it’s not that deep, it’s not that serious.’ My manager was like, ‘You’re insane, this is gonna be a big deal.’”

In the end, however, Barkley said when he made a pros and cons list for his final three teams, ‘the only con on the Philly said was, ‘You might get hate.’” And that wasn’t a good enough reason to avoid a great fit and opportunity.

“I’m super excited about it,” he said of playing for the Eagles and their fans. “When you’re on the Giants side, you’re like, ‘Woh, these motherf–kers are insane.’ But [on] this side, you’re like, ‘Oh, they bleed this.’ This is Philly. It’s Eagles, Flyers, Philly. They bleed this. We lose on Sunday, they’re having a bad week. It impacts their week.”

Barkley said he is well aware when he will face his old team for the first time but he does not intend to overhype it.

“I know when we play them. I know it’s Week 7. I know when we’re at MetLife,” he said with a smile. “The competitor in me wants to go there and go crazy, but what do I get [if I have a big game]? … At the end of the day the most important thing it’s about winning and having the team win.”

Barkley re-told the story of how he played with “hate in my heart” at Chicago in Week 2 of the 2020 season, to prove people wrong after a poor season opener. “And I tore my knee,” he said. “I will never allow myself to ever [do that again].”

“[Brian Daboll], Joe, Daniel Jones, all of them can come out that week and say the craziest stuff about me,” he laughed. “I’m gonna be passionate about it, but that game is strictly just another game to me. But knowing the magnitude of it, it’s not another game because it’s the Giants. I’m gonna treat it just like when we play Dallas and Washington. I’m gonna go out there and try to ball out for the sake of the team.”

He didn’t sound bitter. He sounded like someone at peace with his decision. Now, he said, the talented Eagles know they have to win or else their promise on paper doesn’t mean anything.

For now, on the business end, he’s pleased with how it played out.

“Ultimately I got tagged, played for $10 million and then I end[ed] up getting more money,” he said. “At the time it seemed like it was a disaster. But in reality, I bet on myself and I came out on top in that scenario.”