It is a good thing for Saquon Barkley that the first live action that means everything is more than seven weeks away. That should be more than enough time for Barkley to regroup, emotionally and psychologically, after he was served up a heaping helping of a harsh reality that players say they understand, but actually do not, until it happens to them.
When he does settle down — the “cooler heads prevail’’ thing — he must know that missing part of Giants training camp would be no big deal, but missing a minute of the regular season would make absolutely no sense for him.
It is easy to parrot the standard line about the NFL being “a business’’ and believe you know what that means. It does not truly resonate until there is a push-shove moment, and it is the team doing all the pushing and shoving.
If you think you are special, you are wrong. If you think they will give you more because you deserve it, you are naive. If you think what happened to “him’’ will not happen to you, because you are different and your team values you more, you are kidding yourself.
“These teams are such a–holes and when they have you, they have you,’’ a player agent, who has been involved in more than his share of terse negotiations, told The Post.
The Giants did not give a contract to Daniel Jones worth $160 million based on righteousness. It is what the market demanded they pay for an improving, mid-level starting quarterback. The Giants gave Dexter Lawence a deal totaling $90 million because that is what the other top defensive tackles around the league are making. If the Giants could have secured these players by paying less, they would have.
The Giants slapped the franchise tag of $10.1 million on Barkley because that was the smart thing to do. There was frustration inside the building that a long-term deal did not get done, but Barkley is absorbing the big risk here.
Sure, the Giants have risked alienating their best offensive weapon and causing negative reverberations in a locker room that reveres Barkley. The team almost always finds a way to move on, though. Barkley not accepting the $22 million in guaranteed money can be seen as a supreme athlete betting on himself, but it should not be forgotten what John Mellencamp sang about, as far as what happens when you fight authority.
Barkley has been getting all sorts of advice, well-meaning, but perhaps not challenging enough when it comes to dollars versus sense. There is a decent chance he will never be offered a deal in his remaining NFL career that guarantees him $22 million. Turning that offer down might have been more pride than prescience.
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If the Giants rescinded the franchise tag today and Barkley hit the open market, would there be a team out there willing to pay him $10 million? That’s highly doubtful. Would there be a team out there willing to guarantee Barkley $22 million? That’s even more doubtful. Could general manager Joe Schoen have thrown in an additional $1 million in deference to Barkley’s standing as a team captain, respected leader and for his desire to be a Giant for life? Yes, in theory. But increasing the offer, just because, is not the way this works.
The Giants did not create the devaluation of the running back position, and they sure as heck were not going to buck that trend, even for one of the best backs in the league.
Barkley will not and should not report when Giants players assemble for the start of training camp Tuesday. Here is something else Barkley should not do: miss a regular-season snap. That would cost him $560,000 a game and work against him in every way. From now on, every yard he gains, every pass he catches, every touchdown he scores goes into his asset list for his 2024 contract, with the Giants or elsewhere.
He should hold out for as long as he thinks he can without compromising his ability to get 20-25 touches in the Sept. 10 season-opener against the Cowboys. The longer he stays away, the greater is the danger that upon his return, in his haste to make up for lost time, he will tweak a hamstring or a calf or an Achilles.
Barkley thinks he deserved better, and more, from the Giants. Speaking last week on “The Money Matters’’ podcast — before the July 17 deadline came and went for a long-term deal to get done — Barkley flashed his frustration, dropping a few obscenities, something he refrains from in public. When he said, “My leverage is I could say, ‘F–k you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘F–k you to my teammates,’ ” he was not actually dismissing the team or his teammates. He was merely pointing out — angrily — a possible course of action.
When he warned: “You want me to show you how valuable I am to the team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a down,’’ he quickly added, “That’s a play I could use.’’
His next line? “Anybody [who] knows me knows that’s not something I want to do.’’
It’s not something he should do. For his own sake.
