Until Saquon Barkley tweeted a pair of eagle emoji on Monday afternoon, it was easy to envision Giants co-owner John Mara marching down a hallway in the team’s headquarters and making the kind of decision that has haunted his franchise in the past.
This is a team, after all, that far too often puts emotion ahead of business. Isn’t that why they drafted Barkley at No. 2 overall in the first place? The Giants thought he was going to be the missing piece to carry a fading Eli Manning to a third Super Bowl title, so then-general manager Dave Gettleman didn’t even pick up the phone to entertain offers when he was on the clock.
No one wanted to look at the beloved quarterback and say what was obvious — he was done and it was time to move on. “Once A Giant, Always A Giant” is a lovely motto to etch on the locker room wall, but when it comes to building a team, it is a lousy modus operandi.
So, yes, Monday can be both a sad day in Giants history and a very good one. It is sad because Barkley, when healthy, was the rare player worth the price of admission on his own and also the kind of good person worthy of the adulation from young fans. Just ask the cancer-stricken kid who took home what turned out to be the jersey he wore in his final game with the Giants.
But it is a very good day because the Giants were absolutely right not to match the three-year, $37.75 million contract that Philadelphia handed him. Joe Schoen is hardly batting 1.000 as Giants GM, and the jury is still out on whether he and head coach Brian Daboll end up turning this franchise around. They have a plan, at least, and are sticking to it.
Schoen quickly signed a cheaper (and inferior) running back, Devin Singletary, before making arguably the splashiest move of the day. He traded a second- and fifth-round draft pick to Carolina for edge rusher Brian Burns, signing the 26-year-old to a five-year, $150-million deal in hopes he becomes the elite second pass rusher this defense sorely needs. He also nabbed guard Jon Runyan Jr. in the latest attempt to rebuild the offensive line.
The Giants were better at the end of the day than they were at the start of it. To be clear: They still look like the fourth-best team in their division. It sure feels like this is all trending toward Schoen using the sixth-overall pick in next month’s NFL Draft on a quarterback, which would signal (sigh) that another long season of bad offensive football is coming.
What must Daniel Jones be thinking right now? Not only did the Giants let his best playmaker leave for an NFC East rival, but the team had an “exploratory” meeting with veteran quarterback Russell Wilson last week. Wilson signed with the Steelers, but still, the Giants have done everything but put Jones’s locker stall in the parking lot to signal that they are prepared to move in another direction.
If the Giants do draft a quarterback, Barkley would have given this offense something that resembled an identity as they began that transition. He was a very good player on a team that didn’t have nearly enough very good players. The team, however, had a 26-49-1 record in the 76 games that he played here. That wasn’t his fault, not with three head coaches, a broken offensive line and ineffective (to be kind) quarterback play throughout his six years here.
He’ll have two chances next season to make the Giants pay for that mistake and, in the process, prove that he was worth the big-money contract that they refused to give him. No matter what he does, though, they won’t be wrong for letting him go. The Giants made a cold, calculated business decision that was best for the franchise.
Finally, they didn’t let emotion cloud their judgment.
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.