New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley was attempting to revel in finally beating the Philadelphia Eagles after a five-game losing streak against the NFC East divisional rival.
“It’s a bonus when you’re able to beat a division rival, but at the end of the day it’s just important to finish the season how we wanted to,” he said following the Giants’ 27-10 beatdown and upset of the defending NFC champions on Sunday. “We didn’t have the season we wanted, but we were able to control this last game and how we go out and we all made up in our mind that we wanted to go out on top with a win and we were able to get that.”
Barkley’s sixth season with the Giants is now officially in the books. Missing three games due to an ankle injury, he posted 962 rushing yards, 280 receiving yards, and 10 total touchdowns, including two against the heavily favored Eagles.
But only salvaged a portion of another disappointing season. The Giants finished 6-11 in 2023 and missed the playoffs for the fifth time in Barkley’s six seasons with the franchise.
Now, he enters another uncertain offseason as a free agent with his long-term future in New York completely unknown.
“I have no idea,” Barkley said when asked whether or not it was his last game as a Giant. “I can’t control that. If it is my last game, playing here, if it is, it was a fun six years. Made a lot of great memories, but it’s not like the last time I’m ever playing football. I can’t control that, so I’m not letting my emotions [take over]. If I knew that it was my last game, I probably would feel a little different but like I said, I have no idea.”
Barkley and the Giants have been embroiled in contract uncertainty for the last two years, now. Last offseason, Barkley turned down a multi-year deal that offered him $14 million annually before general manager Joe Schoen used the franchise tag on him — working out a one-year pact that paid him north of $10 million.
Exercising the franchise tag again would likely spell the end of the Giants’ relationship with the two-time Pro Bowler and former No. 2 overall pick in 2018.
“I don’t think any player wants to get franchise-tagged,” Barkley said last week. “Sometimes the franchise tag is a placeholder to be able to work on a deal later. In my case, it wasn’t last year. So if I got tagged again, I think I could give you a better answer or talk about my emotions at that time if it does happen.”
Conversations about his future should begin this week during exit interviews, at least according to Barkley, who said on Wednesday “I definitely will have that conversation with them… I feel like it would be the right thing to just shoot me straight. Let me know what it’s going to be, let me make my decision and move on from there.”
But the Giants have until March to work something out and head coach Brian Daboll certainly didn’t appear to expedite negotiations upon the season’s completion.
“There’s so much time between now and next season,” Daboll said. “All speculation.”
