When the New York Giants elected not to give running back Saquon Barkley a long-term deal ahead of the 2023 season, the organization heard rampant criticism from media pundits.
Many questioned how the Giants could possibly hand Daniel Jones $40 million a year while allowing Barkley to go into the season without a contract.
But three games into the year, we are starting to see why it was a wise decision on the part of New York.
Barkley suffered a high-ankle sprain in the Giants’ Week 2 win over the Arizona Cardinals, knocking him out for several weeks. It’s just the latest injury for Barkley in what has been a career full of them, and it further justifies New York’s decision not to pay him.
Now, to be fair, the early returns on Jones have not been great. In the Giants’ 1-2 start, he has thrown just two touchdowns and four interceptions while posting a passer rating of 70. While he has carried the ball 24 times for 107 yards and a score, Big Blue compensated him with the hope that he would continue progressing as a passer.
Still, Jones is a 26-year-old quarterback who showed significant progression last season. Barkley is a 26-year-old halfback who has not played a full year since his rookie campaign in 2018, and let’s face it: it is a quarterback’s league.
You would have to go all the way back to the New England Patriots in February 2017 to see the last time that a team with a 1,000-yard rusher won the Super Bowl. The Patriots did it with LeGarrette Blount that season. Heck, when the Kansas City Chiefs won their first of two championships in the last four years, Damien Williams was their leading rusher with 498 yards.
An elite halfback is not required for a team to win a Super Bowl. We can argue all we want about whether or not Jones was worthy of his contract, but that is a separate conversation from Saquon Barkley. Yet, for some reason, fans and media members were trying to make the two situations mutually inclusive.
Don’t get me wrong: Barkley is a terrific running back. When he is healthy, he is one of the best the game has to offer. But the operative phrase there is “when he is healthy.”
Even last season, when Barkley played in 16 of the possible 17 games, he was banged up. He appeared in just 13 contests in 2021. Back in 2020, he tore his ACL. In his second season in 2019, he missed three games.
We know that the shelf life of an NFL running back is not very long, and given the amount of injury mileage Barkley already has on his body, his future prognosis doesn’t seem great. Even now, it’s pretty clear that Barkley is not quite the same all-purpose back he was five years ago. During his rookie season, he averaged five yards per carry and caught 91 passes. He has yet to reach 60 receptions since, and as far as his efficiency, he logged just 3.7 yards per attempt in 2021 and 4.4 last year.
It simply would not have been smart for the Giants—who clearly have holes that need to be addressed—to devote a substantial amount of money to Barkley over the long haul.
Is he an outstanding player? Yes. Is he a fantastic guy? Absolutely. There are very few players who have his combination of superb talent and sparkling personality. However, facts are facts. The league has moved away from superstar running backs and has shifted to a more pass-oriented game. If anything, New York should be spending more money fixing its thin receiving corps and solidifying what remains a spotty offensive line (Jones has already been sacked 12 times this season) than worrying about how much it should give Barkley.
The Giants made the correct decision in not providing Saquon Barkley with a new contract going into the 2023 campaign. Barring a dramatic change the rest of the way, they would be remiss not to make the same call when Barkley hits free agency in a little over five months.
