The New York Giants will place the franchise tag on star running back Saquon Barkley.
The move comes correspondingly with the team’s move to keep Daniel Jones in New York. They added four years to Jones’ contract to extend him. Since they didn’t use the tag on Jones, they instead placed it on Barkley, who looked like he might depart in free agency.
Mike Garafolo of NFL Network tweeted on Tuesday, “The Giants will tag Saquon Barkley.”
The #Giants will tag Saquon Barkley, source says
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 7, 2023
Barkley has spent his entire career with the Giants. The team drafted him second overall in the 2018 NFL Draft. Since then he’s found varying degrees of success. This past season was one of his most productive, if not his best. Barkley rushed for 1,312 yards and scored 10 rushing touchdowns.
The NFL world reacted to the news.
First up, what about Saquon? As Dan Duggan tweeted, “The RB tag is just $10.1M. Saquon turned down a multi-year offer worth at least $12M/year during the season, so it’ll be interesting to see how he responds to the tag.” This is indeed an interesting move to watch for the response.
The RB tag is just $10.1M. Saquon turned down a multi-year offer worth at least $12M/year during the season, so it'll be interesting to see how he responds to the tag https://t.co/pP1BrJ0UW5
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) March 7, 2023
And it’s also worth noting that Barkley didn’t sound thrilled about the franchise tag during the season, as Charlotte Carroll recalled.
Here’s what Saquon Barkley told me on getting franchise tagged back after the season ended pic.twitter.com/muC9eactRF
— Charlotte Carroll (@charlottecrrll) March 7, 2023
ESPN reporter Jordan Raanan didn’t rule out an extension for Saquon, though. The reporter claimed he “wouldn’t be surprised to see a long-term deal” for the star running back.
Wouldn't be surprised to see a long-term deal for Saquon Barkley follow relatively soon. Before the start of free agency. https://t.co/EV4PAXu4lK
— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) March 7, 2023
And finally, Danielle McCartan of WFAN praised the front office, as McCartan tweeted, “GREAT JOB by Joe Schoen and company.”
Exactly as I suggested they should: contract w/ DJ, tag Saquon.
GREAT JOB by Joe Schoen and company. 👏🏼 https://t.co/dY7ETHeC2j
— Danielle McCartan from WFAN (@CoachMcCartan) March 7, 2023
As for Saquon himself, the star running back congratulated his teammate Jones on his new contract extension after the news broke. We imagine that we could hear more from him sometime soon, now that news about his status with the team is out for all to see.
Congrats brudda !!! @Daniel_Jones10 ✊🏾🖤 https://t.co/cJJWlAXoR9
— Saquon Barkley (@saquon) March 7, 2023
