Giants GM Joe Schoen couldn’t say Thursday whether or not or not he expects Saquon Barkley to be on the sector in Week 1 for the Giants.
“You’ll need to ask him,” Schoen said on the workforce’s observe facility in East Rutherford. “I’m unsure. I don’t know what his plan is. I haven’t talked to him in most likely three weeks.”
Requested if Barkley nonetheless wishes to be a Large, Schoen added: “I haven’t talked to him.”
If Schoen spoke to Barkley three weeks previously, throughout the NFL’s householders conferences, that shall be a model new progress. That week in Phoenix, every Schoen and co-owner John Mara said they hadn’t spoken with Barkley straight in 10 days.
Regardless, Schoen’s degree seemed to be that they’ve made zero progress since tabling negotiations after inserting the $10.1 million franchise tag on his working once more in mid-March.
Barkley, 26, has not signed the franchise tag tender and subsequently shouldn’t be reporting to the workforce’s facility presently. There’s no telling how prolonged it would drag on.
“After we had the conversations with Saquon, it was recognized that we have been gonna get to a sure level after which we have been gonna transfer on and regroup at another time,” Schoen said.
The GM briefly grew terse and decrease off one in every of many many Barkley questions all through his pre-draft press conference.
“Nothing’s modified since we talked on the homeowners conferences,” he said, repeating a phrase he’d used earlier. “There’s nothing new. I haven’t talked to him.”
Schoen’s exchange on Barkley contrasted sharply collectively along with his report that the “dialogue’s good” and ongoing with defensive kind out Dexter Lawrence’s brokers no matter his absence.
“I’m simply gonna get by means of the draft proper now,” Schoen said, when requested if he has a model new provide in ideas for Barkley. “My focus proper now could be solely on that. So there’s no rush proper now. I simply wish to get by means of the draft, step again after that, see what the roster seems like and go from there.”
Schoen admitted it’s troublesome eradicating the private and human components from these enterprise negotiations, however it certainly’s required.
“No, probably not,” he quipped, when requested if he’s good at it. “It’s powerful. These guys are round, they work onerous, we had a heck of a season final 12 months, and also you grow to be shut with them. And it’s onerous however it’s important to separate it.”
“I’m not gonna say I’m good at it, as a result of there’s a human factor on each side for them and myself,” the GM continued. “However there’s a enterprise aspect to it. And in an ideal world there’s no wage cap and you may make everyone comfortable and pay everyone.”
Schoen said that part of the job is a model new downside since he didn’t really should take it on all through his first offseason.
“That’s one thing I haven’t been by means of earlier than,” Schoen said. “Final 12 months we didn’t really lengthen people from our roster … So after going by the use of a season with the avid gamers, after which this subsequent step of the tactic — whether or not or not it was extending or avid gamers leaving the group — the human ingredient, that half stinks.
“Since you do like all these guys, they put in lots of be just right for you,” Schoen added. “So it’s powerful to separate the enterprise finish from the human factor … The best way [Brian Daboll] and I are across the constructing and attending to know the gamers — possibly we do this greater than most — you do grow to be connected, for positive.”
With negotiations decrease off for now, nonetheless, the one precise remaining deadline for the two sides to agree on a contract extension is July 17 at 4 p.m. In any other case, Barkley should play on a one-year deal.
If the situation sours previous restore, the Giants and Barkley may set up a tag and commerce, too.
Barkley already turned down a multi-year provide averaging over $12 million per season twice in every November and January. Since then, Schoen has paid Daniel Jones on a four-year, $160 million extension, tagged Barkley and insisted the group is comfortable with him on the tag in 2023.
There isn’t any obvious end to this standoff in sight, which the Giants GM as quite a bit as admitted.
()
