Commanders
- NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller said the league will not vote on the Commanders’ sale at next week’s owners’ meetings, per Adam Beasley.
- The NFL finance committee is still vetting prospective new Commanders owner Josh Harris‘ $6.05 billion bid for the franchise.
Cowboys
Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones isn’t worried about the team’s ability to re-sign their star players.
“I feel like as we move forward it will all be about timing, but we feel like we can work within the parameters of the cap and make those type of things happen,” Jones said, via ESPN.
Jones said the team will exercise patience over the next year or two regarding bringing back CB Trevon Diggs, LB Micah Parsons and QB Dak Prescott.
“We want to work on all of the above, but we’ll just have to see how this thing plays out,” Jones said. “You can’t dictate when things happen and the timing. It takes two sides. For them to want to sign up, they’ve got to be happy where it is. And vice versa. But I wouldn’t say just because we don’t get it done by the start of the season doesn’t mean we’re not going to ultimately sign them.”
Giants
The Athletic’s Dan Duggan consulted former NFL GM Randy Mueller and former NFL agent and current CBS Sports analyst Joel Corry on the current impasse between the Giants and RB Saquon Barkley, with Corry giving the perspective of the player’s side and Mueller the perspective of Giants GM Joe Schoen. Corry noted Barkley’s leverage is minimal and he would be looking to get a deal done instead of playing on the tag.
“The tag number [$10.01 million] is less than the offers,” Corry said. “There were durability concerns about [Barkley]. You got through a season unscathed, now’s the time to get your deal done. If you have a bad year as a running back, they won’t tag you a second time, and then we saw how the market was this year for running backs. I wouldn’t want to take that chance if I was Saquon.”
However, the catch is the Giants pulled their offer to Barkley off the table after they were able to use the franchise tag on him minutes before the deadline. They had been discussing a deal in the $12.5 million to $13 million a year range during the bye week and at the end of the season. While that doesn’t include valuable information about guarantees, Corry points out that if they were substantially different than previous running back contracts, they likely would have been leaked already.
“I’m a little shocked the Giants completely pulled an offer off the table,” Corry said. “Normally it would be like, ‘All right, we’re just at an impasse, and if we decide to resume, we’ll resume.’ Not like, ‘It’s off the table.’ That’s a little unusual.”
Mueller thinks Schoen might be trying to reassert leverage in the situation and sending a message for future negotiations that the Giants can’t be walked over. It’s a delicate balance, as the team also ultimately wants to get a deal done with Barkley and not alienate him.
“Maybe if they extended themselves beyond where they were even comfortable with — if they went from 12 to 13 [million], and he didn’t take it — they felt that was a slap in the face,” Mueller said. “[Schoen’s] thinking had to be we’re over-extending to get a deal done based on some other things that we were working on at the time. Now that deal is not there anymore.”
“He’s trying to set deadlines. He’s trying to create urgency and trying to have repercussions,” Mueller added. “At the end of the day, Joe has to have some teeth in why he pulled the offer.”
Ultimately, both Mueller and Corry agreed the Giants probably need to put an offer back on the table close to what the one they pulled was in order for Barkley’s side to save face.
“It would be distasteful to Saquon and the agent if you don’t get back to where your initial offer was in November at the bye,” Corry said. “He’d be like, ‘You offered me this then. I’m not a worse player from when you offered that to me.’ To me, a win is getting back to where you were before the offer was pulled.”
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