Saquon Barkley And The Giants Could Not Agree To A Contract Extension, Which Means He Will Play On The Franchise Tag Or Sit Out The Season

Let's send it to Twitter for Saquon's response:

Nothing like your best offensive weapon saying that before training camp begins, where he will undoubtedly not report to anytime soon. Good times! 

I was sooooooo happy when DeAndre Hopkins signed with the Titans yesterday because it felt like that was going to drag on for months on end along with where Dalvin Cook was going to sign and where Dame Lillard was going to get traded. Now us Giants fans get to add Saquon Watch to our list of offseason activities to see if/when he will show up to Giants HQ, which has me feeling like Knowshon Moreno.

I honestly thought the Giants would meet Saquon in the middle with an extension where he wasn't resetting the running back market after a bunch of injury marred seasons but also was making more than the franchise tag for a 3+ year deal that allowed Joe Schoen to spread the cap hit like mustard since it seemed like everyone wanted Saquon back. But I am also a professional idiot, hence why Saquon is playing on the tag instead of whatever fan fiction my dumb brain created.

If the Giants signed Saquon to a longterm deal, we would be hearing from all the people saying how dumb it was to pay a running back (especially one with his injury history) big money. Now that they didn't lock him up, I'm sure we'll hear how bad the Giants offense will look without a nuclear weapon wearing number 26 in the backfield. 

However as the idiot eternal optimist that I am, I'll just take comfort in knowing Saquon will stay in shape because he is too good a teammate and too much a freak of nature to let himself go, is significantly less likely to get hurt in the gym than on the field during preseason, and will be super motivated to put up the kind of numbers we thought we would get from Saquon every season following his rookie year instead of that being by far the gold standard of his young career. Will that lead to a multi-year deal instead of one last year on the franchise tag? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself. But it's clear Joe Schoen runs this team much differently than the old regime and based on the results of last season as well as the outlook of the near future, I have no choice but to support it.

Speaking of which, you know if Gettleman was somehow still the Giants GM, Saquon may have reset not only the running back market but the entire NFL player market to make more than whatever quarterback is the highest paid player as of today. Damn those were some dark times.

TL;DR - If you are a young football player thinking of one day going pro, I would suggest playing literally any position other than running back.