As New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley heads into his fourth season with the team, the Giants could be waffling on whether or not to pick up the fifth-year option on his rookie contract.
The deadline to do so is the first week of May but the Giants may want more security in the way of Barkley’s health. After a Pro Bowl rookie season in 2018, Barkley has been hobbled by injuries the last two seasons, missing three games in 2019 due to a high ankle sprain (which in effect debilitated him for hail the season) and 14 full games last year with a torn ACL.
“I think that’s (health) part of the discussion and obviously we’re going to have to make a decision in the spring on whether we pick up his fifth-year option or not,” Giants general manager Dave Gettleman told reporters on Tuesday. “You know, again, it comes back to that medical question. It’s unknown and what you have to do is get your trainer and your doctors involved and make your best decision.”
Barkley’s cap hit for 2021 is a sliver over $10 million. According to Spotrac, his fifth-year option cap hit would be approximately $7.2 million.
So Saquon’s fifth-year option for 2022 will cost $7.2M. No question the Giants will pick that up this spring. That would be a pay cut from his $10.1M cap hit for 2021 https://t.co/Q0mqvP7vws
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) March 10, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
That would be a bargain should Barkley make a full comeback and play uptimes to his 2018 level or beyond.
“Every team needs playmakers, let’s be honest,” Gettleman said. “Good Lord willing, Saquon will be 100 percent and obviously he’ll make a huge difference. A healthy Saquon obviously makes a big difference, but, again, you’re always looking to add good players. And, oh, by the way, we’re not playing until September, so we’ve got free agency and we’ve got the draft, and we’ll see how it plays out.”
The Giants will not have to make the decision until after the draft and more grass grows under the situation, giving Barkley more time to recover and the medical team more time to provide an up-to-the-minute status on his rehab.
Leave a Reply