Sephiroth

This was the point I was going to make as well. Dude could easily have another injury and miss 14 games, and he's left 12 million on the table. Some other things that have been missing from the conversation: 1. Among active RBs, Barkley has made the third most money in the league. Is there anyone here who thinks in the past five years he's been the third best player at his position? 2. The franchise tag is the average value of the top five players at their positions for the current year. By definition, Saquon is making better than top-5 money this year. I don't buy the "woe is Saquon, he's being mistreated" arguments. Dude has been paid very well for a long time, it's fair for the team to offer him his current value, they owe him nothing more.

I actually did say the same thing about Daniel Jones. I'm not saying Barkley isn't a good player (he is), but I feel like the team offered him his value and he decided not to take it. Barkley had an amazing rookie season, but every year since has inarguably been worse. His amazing run against the Eagles was five years ago; he hasn't had over 350 receiving yards a season in the past three years. When was the last time he juked three defenders... hell, when was the last time he juked one? He's a nice player but not a generational talent. His numbers aren't even close to the Tomlinsons and Petersons of the world. His OL was really, really bad... but how many times in that 2021 season did we all post in those game day threads, "the hole was there for Barkley but he bounced outside for a 2-yard loss instead?" Until this year, his vision has sucked, and we've all said it. Analysts were saying the guy was washed 12 months ago but now we're expecting the team to break the bank for him? I think Shoen is doing the right thing; he's essentially telling Barkley, "this is your value, if you think you're worth more, prove it again and we'll talk." How has he not been offered his value? He already earned the top rookie RB contract money and had two great seasons, and three mediocre-to-bad ones. He finished in the top ten in scrimmage yards twice in that time period. Those rookie contracts are locked in; if I was Shoen I wouldn't be basing my contract negotiations off the Falcons' bad drafting strategy. I think the difference too is that RBs are more or less washed nowadays by their 7th-8th season. If you go and look at the Sanders, Thomas, etc. years, those guys played 10, 11, 12 seasons and were still highly productive in their later years (Barry Sanders had 2k yards rushing the year before he hung it up). I don't know if it's the new supplements or new training regimens or whatever, but RBs just don't last that long anymore. For the record, it's fine that you all disagree with me, but I think Shoen is absolutely doing the smart thing. We'll see in two years.

I like Barkley, but he's always injured. I'm not a fan of throwing bad money at good... he has a value, offer him his value, and if he refuses let him walk. Dude's not a savior; if he was we wouldn't have had losing seasons 4 out of the 5 years he's been here.

Dude's gonna have to eBay that ring in five years to make the rent.

Typical Giants "oh shit all the guys we wanted are off the draft board" pick. Hope he has the same career arc as Ereck Flowers, Eli Apple, and Evan Engram.

Yeah looks like the initial 6 million was bad reporting and that he's asking for more. I think they're both on the way down and we should have better addressed the position in the draft, but I guess we'll see. Saquon can definitely put together another great season but this is where RBs typically start to fizzle out, and he's had too many big injuries for me to trust him.

Love it.

You get everyone at peak health? Is it just for one season?

Sure but... as opposed to bum knee and ankle, at half the price? I'd take him. Saquon had 40 more receiving yards than Cook last year and 150 more rushing yards. He's played a full season once... Saquon has played a full season twice. Cook's also gone over 1100 yards the past 4 seasons in a row. That's worth 6 million in savings to me.

Honestly I think I'd probably take Dalvin over Saquon at this point. Comparable careers, Dalvin is only one year older, and is apparently only asking for 6 million.

Man, he is FUCKING OWNING that tackling dummy!

Neal's gotta make the jump this year. I sure hope he does.

Some of the scheduling is just ridiculous too. Eight of the first 11 games are road games, and at least four (so far) are primetime? Based on last year's record too we have the fourth-hardest strength of schedule. I think it's very possible we have a better team this year but a worse record. Honestly, Jones did everything asked of him last year, with literally no starting WRs. His starting trio was supposed to be Golladay, Toney, and Shepard, and none of those guys were on the team (well... I guess Golladay technically was...) by week eight. Darius Slayton was supposed to be a training camp cut; Richie James wasn't supposed to make the roster. Isiah Hodgins was so good he got cut midseason, but Jones made the three of them look good. He had one good starting lineman... yet he threw for 11 picks for the entire season, and consistently made big plays when he had to. He didn't get hurt, he elevated the play of the nobodies around him, and he made plays when given the opportunity. You really can't ask for more than that on last year's sad-sack roster. Yeah we really do. I think DJ will be a B, B+ quarterback, but we won two Superbowls with one of those guys so I'm ok with that.

To be fair, getting six billion players for Herschel Walker ended up being a good move for the Cowboys' front office.

Turned out to be a weird vax conspiracy theorist too before Tucker Carlson made it cool!

A lot of this too is exactly "how" they shape the schedule as well. Like... I remember one year we had a MNF game and a 1PM game the following Sunday at Green Bay. Green Bay was coming off a bye and no doubt their entire team had watched the Giants game that Monday... and they were home to boot. Pretty obvious which way that one was going to go.

Corey Washington or bust, baby! Honorable mention to Adewale Ojomo.

Dude drafted about four good players in 4 drafts, and had 6 first round picks over that time. Admittedly two are really good, but that's just not acceptable. I'm not sure where this new Getty love is coming from.

I think in a nutshell, the problem with Gettleman is that the team had literally the most draft capital in the NFL during his tenure but the rosters were still awful.

Love it

I can see 9-8, give or take two games. I'd lean towards "take two games." I think there's a real possibility we're a better team next year but our record is worse.

Yeah pretty much my thinking as well. When I looked up that DT, all I could find on him was "Jordan Riley is a DT drafted by the Giants." That was it. No scouting report whatsoever is a really bad sign.

Whelp... Schoen has reverted to taking nobodies instead of guys who fell, but at least he got the first half of the draft right.

Kuntz still available. Also Winters, Deuce Vaughn, Xavier Hutchinson, McBride.