Joe Schoen on Saquon Barkley: 'There's nothing new'
Saquon Barkley of the Giants runs with the ball against the Commanders at MetLife on Dec 4, 2022. Credit: Mike Stobe
For the second time this week, Saquon Barkley and his absence dominated a Giants news conference.
On Monday, it was because he and teammate Dexter Lawrence did not show for the start of the offseason conditioning, which is voluntary.
On Thursday, it was because general manager Joe Schoen was deluged by questions about the franchise-tagged Barkley and his status with the team.
This was one of Schoen’s answers: “Nothing’s changed since we talked at the owners’ meetings. There's nothing new. I haven’t talked to him. I'm just going to get through the draft right now. My focus right now is totally on that. So, there's no rush right now. I just want to get through the draft and step back after that and see what the roster looks like and then go from there.”
The Giants go into next week’s draft with a total of 10 picks and some clear needs. Cornerback and wide receiver are two of the big ones, along with the interior offensive line and depth along the defensive line.
The team has its original picks throughout the first five rounds as well as compensatory picks in the fifth and seventh rounds.
It was the Barkley questions — the quantity of them, in particular — that seemed to rankle Schoen.
“Nothing’s changed since we talked [at the owners meetings in March],” Schoen said. “Nothing’s changed since we talked.”
When asked earlier this week about the absence of Barkley and Lawrence from the start of the offseason program, coach Brian Daboll said he's "had conversation with both of those guys." Daboll added that he will "leave those conversations, like I always do, private.”
Schoen did acknowledge movement with Lawrence’s camp about a new contract.
In an offseason where defensive tackles have gotten paid — see the 49ers' Javon Hargrave, the Commanders' Daron Payne and the Titans' Jeffery Simmons — the market has become mighty expensive, but it has been set. Think of a starting point around $90 million.
“We’re deep in the draft and draft prep,” Schoen said. “But, yeah, we’ve had good conversations with Dexter’s representatives. We have a formula we have in place in terms of coming up with value of players. We stay true to that . . . in free agency, contract extensions. It takes two to get a deal done.”
This is a draft that does not appear to be as deep as some in recent memory.
“I’m not gonna get into how many first-round grades that we have,” Schoen said. “We have guys in the first round that we like and we’re pretty confident that there will be somebody there when we pick at 25 that we’ll be happy with.”
Asked about Bijan Robinson, the consensus top running back in the draft, Schoen said: “I think there are several good backs in the draft. If it’s a good player and a team decides to take him, and they have success in their system, I don’t think you can go wrong taking good football players. I don’t want to pigeonhole myself, saying I would never take a [certain] position in the first round. It’s a good running back class, it has some depth to it and Bijan is a good player.”
It does seem as if the Barkley situation looms over the Giants.
He is popular, in and out of the locker room and well-respected.
Schoen, without saying Barkley’s name, acknowledged a necessary balancing act.
“It’s tough,” he said. “You’re around these guys. They work hard. We had a heck of a season last year. You become close to them. It’s hard, but you have to separate it. [Even though] there’s a human element to it. There is a business side to it. In a perfect world, there is no salary cap and you can pay everybody. That’s something I haven’t been through before [as a GM]. The human element, that part stinks.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
