There are a lot of questions surrounding rosters in the NFL but one of the biggest things that I have been seeing is if the New York Giants should extend the fifth-year option to their running back Saquon Barkley as he is eligible for it in this coming offseason. If he is not offered a fifth-year option, then next season could be his final year as a member of the Giants organization. Today, we are going to discuss the pros and cons for New York to do so and ultimately answer their question of exactly what they should do.
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Sign Him to a Fifth Year
When you draft a player with the second overall pick in the draft, you cannot just let him become an unrestricted free agent after four years. Barkley is more of a Barry Sanders type running back that is going to continuously get a couple yards or lose a few yards and then break an 80 yard run and that can be a little bit infuriating to a team that struggles to move the chains but ultimately, you need him on the roster.
As of this writing, Barley has 581 rushing attempts in his career so he still has time before a running back inevitably has too many carries on their body and struggles. Maximize your investment in Barkley and use him as a pass-catcher more like the Giants did during his rookie season. His fifth-year option is actually under his 2021 salary cap number $7.217 million in 2022 compared to $10.025 million in 2021. It just makes financial sense to extend him and see if he can stay healthy.
Do Not Extend a 5th Year
Health is a priority in the NFL and unfortunately, Saquon Barkley has struggled to stay on the field for the New York Giants in his young career. He has played in 23 of a potential 44 games since his rookie season (52.3 percent of games) due to a torn ACL and an ankle injury that kept him sidelined. Unfortunately in the NFL, if you cannot remain healthy it means the end of being a productive player.
His numbers are struggling as if you take out the 2020 season in which he only played in two games before tearing his ACL, Barkley’s yards per rushing attempt has been decreasing as it went from five yards per run in 2018, 4.6 yards in 2019, and currently 3.8 yards per carry in 2021. The offense isn’t built for him to thrive either as Barkley is an elite pass-catcher out of the backfield but Daniel Jones isn’t throwing his way enough to make him elite either. Why have a distressed asset on your roster?
Conclusion
Overall, I loathe the fact that the New York Giants selected a running back with the second pick in the NFL Draft because it just does not make financial sense. The Giants are essentially in cap hell as they have five players taking up about half of their cap space and that really limits how well they can build this roster, that has not played well since Saquon Barkley was drafted. Barkley is a good player but just like safety Jamal Adams, you cannot justify spending that percentage of your cap to a player like this. I believe you offer the fifth-year option to get an additional year of his talents but you cannot justify signing him to a long-term deal and instead need to either trade him away or just let him walk once the contract runs out.
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