Pinpointing the ORIGINAL SIN regarding the Giants' negotiations with Saquon Barkley 📍 | First Take 

"Give us your word" is the craziest thing I've heard all year.

It would be reminiscent of AJ Brown beating the brakes off of the Titans.

SHE DID IT! Molly is gangsta yo! She said what every football fan was thinking..beat the brakes...

There is a reason why some franchises are where they are. That clip just showed it

Giants fans: give a below average QB 40 mil Also Giants fans: we can’t afford 13 per for a all pro RB

When shoen joked about offering sayquan a ton of money he didn’t want last year , that seemed to be a real Statement that shoen was mad about.

If the Giants signed him the same media would be blowing up on them for overpaying a RB.

As a former N,Y. Giant's fan I'm so disappointed in the ownership,G.M. on paying bumper Jones all the cash & letting Barkley go to their rivals ??? Somebody had their head up their ass on this one.🤣🤑🤣

So you’re telling me if you’re the GM and you have arguably the worst run blocking o line in the league; you’re going to pay a RB in his late 20s who’s been having more frequent injuries each year? These clowns just be saying anything

@5:34 Molly talkin bout.. "the Eagles beating the brakes off the Giants". Haven't they been doing that when Saquon was on the Giants roster? 🤣🤣🤣

The Giants have been a team building for the future. Going to the playoffs in 2022 was a mirage. As Joe Schoen says "you can't have a $40MM dollar QB hand off to a $12MM dollar running back. We're going to know this year if Daniel Jones can succeed or fail.

The Giants first mistake was drafting Saquon 2nd overall, when they should've drafted a QB. The Giants second issue was at the time their front office, and coaching staff were in turmoil. You can say what you want about how things went down this past off season, but last year coming off the 2022 playoff season, they were stuck with 2 free agents. Saquon, and Daniel Jones. The Giants initially wanted to sign SB, and tag DJ, but SB reject their offer, he felt he was worth more money. From the Giants stand point, SB although a good RB, had only had 3 seasons of his career w/o injury, and he's now 27 y/o. The Giants were also stuck with cap issues left over from the previous GM. The Giants, made DJ a offer that was 2 million /yr over his tag price, and a contract with an out after 2 years. Mind you, DJ was a playoff winning QB at the time. When all is said and done DJ got a very pedestrian contract for a QB. Daniel Jones and Trevor Lawrence have essentially the same QB stats, but DJ's contract is 10 million less. After last years uproar with being tagged, and Saquon basically realizing he wasn't gonna get a McCafferty type contract he was upset. I believe that unless the Giants made him some crazy offer to stay SB was going to leave no matter what was said. I wish SB didn't go to the Eagles, but i believe that Joe Shoen did what was in the best interest of the Giants. The contrat that SB took in Philly, wasn't very much more than what the Giants offered, so i believe that SB was leaving NY no matter what.

The GM should loose his Job after that vidio😂😂😂

Mina’s comment at the end saying they’ll have to succeed through the air now if they want to be successful is the whole Point. That’s how they want to run their offense. And if Jones can’t do that, then they know they have to move on from him. But you’ll never find out if you run saquon into the ground like they’ve been doing.

Nope. The original sin was drafting a rb in the 1st round when you were so far from contending. Get with the times

12m is 2% of the cap? So the cap is 600m?!😂😂😂 if you can't do Maths, don't use it in your reasoning

You don’t overpay for a RB with injuries. The giants obviously know something that the media don’t know about Barkley.

Saquan went to the perfect place to torment the Giants HOPEFULLY twice a year every year for the remainder of his career.

Saquon was offered 13 mil a year in 2022, but he wanted 16. What you saw in hard knocks was the Giants GM sticking to the number they wanted to give Saquon and Saquon turning it down. Instead of tagging Saquon again and going through that drama, Schoen decided to let Saquon have what he wants. Go to FA and see if you can get 16 mil. If you do...egg on my face and let us try to match whatever the highest offer you get is. Whats the big deal here guys? These analysts are idiots on this show.

They forgot to mention how the Giants already offered him 2 contracts

People broke the contract down for Barkley 2 years ago but you mainstream folks kept telling us "market value" like play didn't actually matter. At least start giving us our proper appreciation instead of talking like the idea came out of nowhere and not just from "nobodies". 😅 Appreciate you guys btw.

people keep saying “ they paid DJ and not Barkley” as if schoen didn’t offer Barkley basically the same contract he got with Philly. Yes, Philly gave more guaranteed money but the giants DID offer him. So the giants didn’t “lose” saquon…he left on his own. Why ? Because he didn’t want to be there.

Mina is 100% correct. That's what I've saying all along. They should have signed Saquon and franchised tagged Jones. That way you would have paid very little for Jones now (after what everyone saw last season) and still have Saquon. And this is why I also keep saying that that GM is gone after this year.

Honestly poor takes from each person. 2% of the cap but 26 gets injured every year bc we have no offense line. Take feelings out of it you win in the trenches and the 4 backs we have will 100% produce more than 26 did not to mention we’ll be able to pass the ball this year. Joe is not on the hot seat by any means we could go 4-14 and he’ll still be our GM he’s hit on every single pick except Evan Neal, and you can clearly see the giants are a building team not this year but next year we could start being a playoff team especially after we cut DJ next year to get off half his salary. It feels like they didn’t do any research just come on air and spit nonsense

I have never seen ESPN do this deep of a dive into hard knocks.

They should have tagged Daniel Jones and given Saquon Barkley the same deal he just signed with the Eagles. That was the original sin. Saquon Barkley was the GIANTS BEST PLAYER. A DIVISIONAL ARCH RIVAL paid him more than they have EVER paid a RB confirms that indeed he was.

I blame ownership for the Jones contract tbh. Mara's have had a hard on for Jones since he was drafted

It seem like ESPN point of view is to make the Giants look bad. Schoen said in an earlier episode that he didn't know what the market was for RB. he didn't want to insult Barkley. I don't see how him testing Free agency is so bad to find out what his true value was. I hate that he left the Giants but it sound like he was done with the team no matter what on that phone call. He is a great talent that never really got to be as great as the Giants draft him to be. Gettleman said he would be a first ballot Hall of Famer. I think the best thing of both was to split ways. Saquon has an injury history also. I don't see the Giants winning with Barkley as the main focus of the offense. The Eagles is an overall better team roster wise.

Having Saquon hasn’t made this a good team, over paying for a running back is like having a super nice car living in a shack. Let’s get our house together first, there are great rbs coming out every year

And Gms wonder why players move how they move when it’s contract time. “Give us your word” and not pay the best player on your team is wild.

Mina nailed it. Best take on this mess if your a Giant's fanl

This guy tried to compare a dominant Receiver to a dominant RB, they aren’t the same in this league when one position is hitting 2.5x contracts compared to the other.

Having a back like Barkley is having a final piece to a team that is close to winning a SB! The Giants are no where close to being in a SB they have so many other needs!

As a Giants fan I die little bit inside seeing and hearing this. 🤢

i think that she's right.... she changed my perspective on this...

They offered him two deals last season

Barkley got an offer the year before he was franchised. A very, very similar deal. Barkley said no. As a Giants fan I’m glad he stood his ground.

I couldn’t disagree more with Molly. This is the point of hard knocks.

Mina is right. Giants were stupid for giving Jones 40mil and tagging saquon. Bad mgmt = bad teams. When saquon rushes for 2k yds and the giants have 4 wins nxt season, i hope they fire Joe schoen

Everyone acts like we won with saquan we had 1 winning season with him! That’s why the old gm is gone. Let Joe cook I like to try new meat especially if it’s old and can’t produce wins let’s try something new to get Wins

lol context is key Joe Schoen tried to give him an extension the year that giants beat the Vikings and Saquon turned the offer down

He is played one whole season in his career what do you people talking about

Giants made the right call. Drafting Saquon was the first mistake. Should have went for a QB with that pick. Nevertheless they shouldn't overpay for an injury prone RB when they already have an overpaid QB and no O-line. Build an oline, let Saquon test FA and i think deep down they know DJ is not that guy. The only issue is Mara who loves DJ.

Bro watch the show also devin singletary is not bad and everyone wants to hate on dj we will see

The way he said Ed Berry's name, you know it's about to be bullshit coming out of Joe Schoen's mouth. But he redeemed himself with the Brian Burns Trade. A 2nd and a 5th for an All Pro LB is wild.

Schoen botched this up, plain and simple. Saquon should've been a priority with the Giants, instead he was treated as "just another running back." They weren't that far apart, but Schoen was so worried about upsetting the "market for running backs" nonsense, instead of worrying about doing what was best for the Giants and their pathetic offense. Sorry, John Mara should've gotten more involved in this.

What is it about sports media that they don't understand that building a football is a business! The Giants has so many holes to fill with not much cap room! What winning team starts and prioritize getting RB before fixing an O line, DE, WR, and a backfield? Barkley is a great player, but no matter how good Barkley is he will not take the Giants to the promise land. I do think Shane would had like to have signed him unfortunately Giant are in need of a lot of quality players and could not overpay for a player regardless how good he is and was not always available due to injuries. Shane was looking for a more affordable contract and Barkley wanted a lot more than the market price, I get it, this might be Barkley last shot at getting a big contract, but the Giants could not prioritize the RB position no matter how good he is. I don't fault either side it was just time for both party to move on!

*This proves Teams Do Not Have Loyalty to their Players*

Just bc you can crunch numbers don't mean you know how to read the vibes & network with others🤦🏾‍♂️

They don’t want to build it up from the running back position they want to build it from the qb position that’s y they commented that they didn’t pay DJ 40 mil to hand off to a 12 mil dollar player

Philly gonna beat more than just the brakes.! They gonna beat the rotors and pads….

Shows why these people report news and don't make news

The Giants will get it together eventually

Nothing like showing percentage of a teams offense of a team that hasn't seen much success. For all the talk of Saquon, what difference has he made for the Giants? 6 win seasons? Bye Saquon. And bye soon to be DJ

It seems from the first moment the NY Giants approved Saquon back in November 2022 all the way until the off season of 2024, almost everyone, (some fans and media) had sided with Saquon. Some are even saying that the Giants were foolish not to sign him and have chose Daniel Jones instead. This debate has come forward even more in light of the Hard Knock episodes. The truth is to sign Saquon to a long term deal would have been a mistake for the Giants. It's easy to say what a team should/shouldn't do from the comfort of your own home or a studio instead of physically being in the organization. This regime when they first took over had to basically clean up the mess left over by two previous regimes. If you observe this current regime, you will see they put money into positions they value most, the offensive line and defense with the extentions of Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawrence, the drafting of Kayvon Thibodeaux and bring in Bobby Okerekee. Yes Barkley did alot for the organization, but you have to at the end do what's best for the team moving forward. The truth is the Giants made a mistake in drafting Barkley in 2018 as he was a luxury they couldn't afford at the state they were in. To have resigned him, they would have double down on that.

Saquon isn't even a discussion the discussion is who in the blue hell thought giving Jones 40 million dollars was a good idea? That's the problem people ok you can pick up another back cool but who in the blue hell thought Jones deserved that much money?

Saquan turned that deal down too stop spinning the narrative and beside the Giant's needed more help than Saquan obviously

That math is wrong. Barkley's APY as a cap hit would be 6%, not 2%. There's only 3 teams in the NFL above that, but two of those Saints/Kamara, Colts/Taylor have significantly less guaranteed money tied to the contracts as compared to Barkley. Kamara and Taylor will likely never see all theirs.

Mara did not want to lose SB. If this fails, Joey is gone.

As a giant fan I hope saquan does terrible. So sick of hearing this garbage. He is on the decline. Enough with this. He did not deserve more. Giants got it right. Wrong on jones obviously but this part they got right. Should have let them both walk.

That’s why they’re where they are 🤷🏻

How hard is it for you to understand Saquon was never Schoens guy. He has no loyalty to him. He never drafted him, he inherited him.

Waiting patiently for the flip of the take when the Giants start winning again

Most people are not knowledgable about how aful that giants oline was. We needed to address that issue for the last decade and we couldnt afford to pay a star rb all that money when we have other needs. I cant recall the last time a superbowl winner that their main offense was just purely a run game. Yes i agree paying dj that much was insane but i wouldnt pay saquon knowing his injury history and that rbs now a days dont last long

I can listen to Mina all day ❤😩

Why do these folks argue about these with not doing their research. The Giants offered Barkley a 14m deal in November of 2022. His agent thought he could get 16m-20m. 2nd. The Giants paid Dex, Andre Thomas, Jones, and Burns. They don't have an issue of not paying players. 3rd. If you watch preview of next episode, the Giants offered Barkley 25 guaranteed/12.5m per, he turned it down to go to Philly for 25g /13.5m. He can walk to Philly 4. Statistics show running back at age 27 take large dip in production. Then you fact or in Barkley's injury history. /12m

I just don’t understand what these media people don’t get. Barkley was not a difference maker for a team that needs a difference maker. He’s a difference maker for a team that is already good. Joe shoen did not draft Barkley. He does not believe in the value of rbs. As he shouldn’t. What Super Bowl teams do u know in the last 10 years that have been paying their rb over 10 mil a year? I’ll wait.

02:23 Maybe I missed something, but where is he getting 2% of the cap? 2% of the cap would be around $5 million dollars per season, would it not?

I love the experts on her talking about this. Shit journalism hahaha

Mara couldent sleep that night

Great show Mike n hary

We didn't win with him. Should have traded down in that draft. And Molly should quit. Annoying

No one could put context to those percentages? On a low scoring and moving team, and TDs gotten within 10 yards after others drove down the field.

Danny is the owner's boy. Thats where the problem starts. Let the people you hired run the team.

It was not a mistake

At this point it just baffles me that the self proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports” can’t get the facts straight. Stop with the Giants “chose” Jones over Barkley, they tried to sign Barkley MULTIPLE times throughout the 2022 season going back to the trade deadline. They offered him 13mil a year, they offered him 23mil guaranteed and he kept saying no. They WERE trying to sign him and tag Jones but he wouldn’t agree to anything the Giants offered him so they had to resort to plan b which was to sign Jones instead. The Giants didn’t choose Jones, Barkley didn’t let the Giants choose him. You can literally google it. This narrative to keep making Saquon look like the victim and some kind of saint is getting real old. Someone who truly wants to “be a Giant for life” would not go to the arch rival over a couple million guaranteed money; he never wanted to come back and going to the Eagles to stick it to them proves it. Stop with the BS.

People thinking Joe Schoen should be fired are utterly stupid and don’t know context😂 how far did we ever go with him in the team? Never overpay a RB

No one cares about snakeuon if he went to any other team not named the eagles or cowboys no giant fan would say anything about him this how rivalry’s in sports have always been

OK, we lost Saquon, but we significantly upgraded our defense. We’ll see. Let’s see if Philadelphia can beat the brakes off us with an improved defense that remains to be seen.

Since when is 12 2% of 255?

I don't get the hate on this. Giants were openly working with Saquon to get what's best for him. They don't want to tag him because that's not what he wants. They worked out a deal after tagging last year. Normally the players don't get the call at all or it goes through the agent.

What makes the whole situation worse is that the eagles got him ifffffff they win a Superbowl especially this year and Barkley has a huge part NY will be sick

this is absurd. How else do they think negotiations happen? absurd

They paid Christian 😏

First take sucksss without SAS...

I have said on RU-vid and other social media cites that the NFL salaries are way out of wack. QBs get paid too much and RBs not enough. The NFL is not as smart as they think they are. The Brock Purdy situation is a perfect example. One team in the entire league saw value in the kid from Iowa State, but he won a starting job on a team the has been to the super bowl the past 2 years. Hard Knocks showed the meticulous, painstaking analysis the Giants used to value Saquon, but the sad fact is that the Giants could not get the value above 12 million a year. I think that is wrong analysis, wrong thinking. If the Eagles have a good season this year, possibly get to a super bowl, the Giants will NEVER live that mistake down. How much is it worth to the team that wins the super bowl?

Saquan didn't want to be franchise tagged!!!! What are yall talking about!! The giants did the right thing for him. Now let's see on the next episode if Saquan circled back or not.

Signing jones and franchising Barkely are separate issues. Giants are not in a position to win a superbowl. That being the case, paying top dollar for an aging RB just doesn’t make sense. Taking a shot on a young mobile qb who won a playoff game with a subpar roster is not a bad plan. It didn’t work out granted, but the plan made sense. Also at this point after you sign a QB to see if he will be the guy you have to give him every shot to prove himself. Only way to do that is to give him a decent o line and a receiving weapon and see if he can run the offense. Not hand the ball off to an elite RB and be no closer to seeing what Jones really is.

I’m guessing Howie would handle this very differently if Saqoun had been in a similar situation in Philly.

Lil" giants are going to struggle more this season, jobs will be on the line

The cowboys won superbowls with TONY DORSET and EMMIT SMITH…. THE Giants won super bowls with average running backs not breaking any records…..so running backs are good but not essential… ask KC and NEW ENGLAND………so stop crying about SAQUAN……😪😪😪😪

That was the original sin at all. The original sin was on Barkley. Giants offered 2 contracts their best one would've been more per year than Philly but 1 million less in guaranteed money. If he wanted to be a Giant he would've taken that. He clearly was done with the team. The team, Saquon and rational fans have all moved on.

The sin is drafting a QB from Duke, Daniel Jones!!!!! That's why I am rather be an atrocious Cowboy fan than be a Giant fan!!!!

Giants management is the reason the giants are where they are. Paying a 4th string QB millions and then letting your best player walk is poor leadership! They did the same thing with Beckham. Granted, Beckham was a dick but he could play. You don't win games by trading your star players or letting them walk!

Why is it such a big fucking deal? The Giants sucked when he was on the roster and the Giants are gonna suck when he’s off the roster. Players leave teams all the time it’s part of the game.

Are you guys all insane? SB didn’t want to “Be a NYG for life”. Stop it. All the talking points here are so off base. What happens when SB breaks down? Are you going to retract all These terrible takes? A GM is supposed to make hard decisions. He offered Saquon a bunch of money last year and he turned it down. That’s why DJ got a basic contract. #madness

The giants offered him an identical contract to the one the eagles offered him the year before and he turned it down.

They gave him a contract for 14 million a year and he said no

Joe must Go!

Are we surprised? Look how the Giants allowed Eli Manning to go out.