The Giants Will Not Use The Franchise Tag On Saquon Barkley, Which Feels Like The Right Move For Everyone Involved

This doesn’t happen often in the NFL let alone a super opinionated place like New York, but I think everyone is happy with this decision. Saquon gets to see if he can get the deal he thinks he deserves despite playing a position that people constantly say is worthless. The Giants can potentially sign him to a more team friendly contract if he can’t find that deal since Saquon seems to understand the value of staying in a big market for his whole career and the Giants offense was bad to quite bad even before losing their best player. And Big Blue fans can finally stop embracing debate over the worth of a running back for the first time since The GM Who Shall Not Be Named took Saquon with the 2nd pick of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Of course this would all have been so much easier if Saquon was an asshole or a durable player that constantly reached the lofty expectations he set in college and his rookie season (Saquon’s agents are lunatics if they don’t lead with these highlights in negotiations because Rookie Saquon was the truth)

Instead Saquon has been the perfect example of a player you love but also want so much more from, which has essentially been the epitome of the Giants franchise since he arrived. Which is why I truly hope he gets his massive bag from a team that didn’t ruin his prime like the G-Men did, as long as that bag doesn’t come from the Cowboys or Eagles. I know all the negatives that could hit those teams if they backed up the Brinks truck to Saquon’s house. But watching Saquon dominate on either of those teams that actually have a functional offensive line would be the most fucked up thing in what has already been one long nightmare. Hopefully one of the Harbaugh brothers or CJ Stroud can convince their GMs to open the bank for Saquon so I can see him dominate on teams I have no problems with in the AFC. 

This is the part of the blog where I would put in Saquon’s highlights over the last few years or him holding his own with Portnoy during his appearance on One Bite. But I’m not going to do any of that because I want this breakup to hurt as little as possible before I convince myself the guy Joe Schoen drafts on Day 2 or 3 can give us 80% of Saquon’s production despite being plopped into an offense that was unwatchable for chunks of the last few seasons when Saquon was out.