Saquon Barkley signs revised franchise card, joins Giants

run backwards Saquon Barkley signed my franchise card with New York Giantsgroup announced Tuesday.

The deal is a fully guaranteed $10.1 million one-year adjusted franchise card and up to $11 million with incentives, sources told ESPN. The card has been tweaked to add $2 million worth of rewards, as well as incentives, the sources said.

The $909,000 in incentives includes equal pay for three categories: 1,350 javelin and one playoff kick, 11 touchdowns and 65 tackles, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The deal doesn’t include a “no franchise tag” clause, sources told ESPN, meaning the Giants could tag him again after this season. This is what Barkley and his team hope to get.

This was a pretty big concession from Barkley when he covered the first day of training camp for veterans. A source told ESPN that the re-running Pro Bowl was in the building Tuesday by 8 a.m. ET.

Showing up on the first day of camp with his teammates reinforces the perception that Barkley is a team-first player. It would limit the questions and drama that would inevitably overwhelm the Giant’s camp if he didn’t report.

Barkley said in a recent appearance on the podcast “The Money Matters” that he can consider not playing this season in the context that he is at an impasse with the team over a long-term contract. He said at his AMPT football camp last month that sitting out of the season would be “part of the conversation” if there is no long-term deal.

The Giants and Barkley failed to agree a deal ahead of time for franchisees to agree to long-term contracts, meaning he will have to compete this season with a $10.091 million franchise bid.

But the rules that allow players in this situation to negotiate a modified one-year contract. It’s a rarely used option.

Barkley, 26, did not sign the franchise this spring or summer and was not allowed into the team’s premises due to the rules. He is not expected at training camp this summer without at least a change deal.

Barkley finished fourth in the NFL with 1,312 career-highest javelins last season, making 10 touchdowns and taking the top spot of the team with 57 touches. He’s played 60 career games in five seasons since becoming the #2 overall draft pick in 2018, when he was named Offensive Rookie of the Year.

The Giants and Barkley worked for nine months to reach an agreement on a deal. It’s been a bumpy road to reaching this temporary solution.

Barkley was not happy with the way the negotiations were portrayed. He thinks the details reported throughout make him look “greedy”.

While some deals come in at as much as $13-14 million per season, Barkley doesn’t see them as sufficient in terms of the amount and structure guaranteed, sources told ESPN. It creates a deadlock.

The Giants and Barkley’s team haven’t made much progress since they signed midfielder Daniel Jones in March (which allows the use of the card on Barkley) until just days before the mid-July deadline to strike a long-term deal. Barkley even added a new agent, Ed Perry from the CAA, to expedite the process.

In times before the deadline, the two sides were said to be only about $2 million apart, according to sources.