NFL insider Sal Paolantonio puts Saquon Barkley failed contract negation into perspective

The New York Giants had until the 4 p.m. deadline on Monday to reach a contract extension agreement with star running back Saquon Barkley, but failed to do so. The Giants placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on Barkley in March, and Barley was hoping to reach a long-term deal with the team. But both sides failed to reach an agreement, continuing the offseason trend of running backs being undervalued in the NFL market.

NFL insider Sal Paolantonio spoke about the state of the running back market as it relates to Barkley on ESPN’s ‘Get Up‘ Tuesday morning, putting some perspective on the situation with Dan Orlovsky, Mike Greenberg, and Kimberly Martin.

“Dan’s right, the NFL running back market is broken Greeny, but the NFL broke the market and they’re going to have to fix it,” Paolantonio said. “So let us put it into perspective right, let’s say Saquon Barkley and the Giants were close as Kimberly said. Maybe about $5 million a year guaranteed money close. That’s two percent, two percent of the of the $225 million salary cap, so you’re basically ruining your team for two percent?”

According to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, the Giants would not up their contract offer of $11 million per year with a guarantee slightly north of $22 million, despite being within $1 million to $2 million of Barkley’s reduced asking price. A figure that Paolantonio believes the organization could have definitely paid given the biger picture of the situation.

“Let’s put it into more perspective, NFL teams collect about $2 million per game in parking revenue. $2 million per game, 17 regular season games, three preseason games, that’s $40 million a year just in parking,” Paolantonio said. “So this is the working definition of pennywise and pound foolish.”

Following the 4 p.m. deadline, Barkley tweeted, “It is what it is.” As the Giants now have an even bigger problem with their running back whose been the engine of their offense. NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported that Barkley will not report to training camp, and ESPN’s Diana Russini even believes there’s a strong chance he could even sit out in Week 1 versus Dallas Cowboys.

“The Giants don’t have a money problem, the Giants now have, as Dan has pointed out, a football problem,” Paolantonio said. “Saquon Barkley is not their running back, he’s their offense, he’s 40% of their offense and you know what Greeny? We’re all right here in the big bad apple, we all came from the big bad apple where things are more expensive and people are paying attention, the Giants are now going to have a public relations problems.”

Barkley joins a list of running backs like Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard who also failed to reach long-term deals with their respective teams at the deadline. Various players and running backs specifically met the news with outrage, as the running back position has been devalued leading to a troublesome offseason for various NFL RBs.

And with a player of Barkley’s caliber in a major market like New York, it will definitely be interesting to see how both Barkley and the Giants’ organization navigate the situation moving forward.