Giants Mismanaged the Saquon Barkley Situation: Robert Griffin III’s Main Takeaway From ‘Hard Knocks’

Losing their star rusher and best offensive player, Saquon Barkley, was bad enough for the Giants, but releasing unfiltered behind-the-scenes footage of their negotiations opened up a whole can of worms. It cast the organization and GM Joe Schoen in a negative light. Consequently, the NFL world, including Robert Griffin III, believes the main takeaway from this fiasco is how poorly the franchise handled Barkley’s situation.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, RG III emphasized that this year’s Hard Knocks revealed how the Giants botched the Barkley situation. Instead of building their offense around their most dependable offensive player, the team chose to pay $40 million to their QB, Daniel Jones.

When it came time to pay Saquon, they opted to lowball their offer, forcing the rusher to test the waters of free agency. By incorrectly believing that Jones was the true leader of their offense, when it was actually Barkley, the Giants lost their identity. On top of that, Griffin believes that despite sticking with Jones, the Giants are still unsure if he is their QB of the future.

Notably, Schoen was captured in ‘Hard Knocks’ expressing that they are not paying $40 million to their QB just to hand the ball off to a $12 million running back. This statement echoes his sentiment that the front office still believes in Jones and is ready to give him another year to prove his worth as a shot-caller, believing he can perform well behind an improved offensive line.

Eventually, Jones signed a 4-year, $160 million deal with the Giants after a successful 2022 season. The contract includes a $36 million signing bonus and $92 million in guaranteed money. However, things haven’t quite worked out the way the club thought it would.

In 2023, Jones played only six games due to a neck injury and a torn ACL. He finished the season with just 909 passing yards, two touchdowns, six interceptions, and a 1-5 record. In contrast, Saquon Barkley finished the season with 962 yards from scrimmage despite playing only 14 games. He also tallied 280 more receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns.

That being said, not everyone feels the situation has been mismanaged by the front office. Many are still backing Schoen’s decision not to overpay Saquon, believing he acted in the franchise’s best interest.

Fans React to RG III’s Take Regarding Saquon Barkley

Several users agreed with Griffin’s take about the Giants’ mishandling of the situation and felt that this is a screw-up of epic proportions, a historically bad decision that the franchise will rue for a long time. However, not everyone jumped on this panic train, noting that Schoen did right by the club.

They argue that the situation wasn’t mismanaged, as the team brought in Burns and two more offensive linemen. That only happened because they refused to overpay their running back.

A few pointed out that it is a QB-centric league, and if you want your shot-caller to perform, you need to build around him and give him weapons. That’s what the Giants did. They believe a rusher, no matter how good, can never win the team a Super Bowl. See for yourselves:

Notably, the Giants and Schoen signed Devin Singletary to a 3-year, $16.5 million deal, saving about $20 million. They invested this surplus in the O-Line, the lifeblood of the offense.

Even if the Daniel Jones experiment doesn’t pan out, they will still have a great offensive line for the next quarterback they draft. Jones is in the final year of his guaranteed contract.

The contract is structured in a way that the Giants have an out after this season, leaving them with a dead cap figure of only $22.2 million. This is a manageable figure and still better than keeping him around for the next few years. Perhaps, they will draft someone like Shedeur Sanders next year.