Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley had been two of the most talked about Giants heading into training camp because of their contract situations this season. Both have certainly done more than enough to give general manager Joe Schoen a reason to give them contract extensions and the GM said on Tuesday that if they were to come it would be this week.
The Giants have the week off before they get back into the swing of things next week following the bye and they will use the down time to examine whether now is the time to extend certain players.
“We’ll have those meetings this week,” Schoen said. “We’ll talk about it if we want to (do something). We had to get through the trade deadline (Tuesday) and those conversations. We’ll kind of circle up with some strategy meetings as we move forward on contract extensions and if we may or may not do anybody. If I did, this would be the week. I would want to entertain it during the bye week, and then I probably won’t do anything after that.
“I don’t want anything to be a distraction to the players or organization. So, if we do something, it would be probably before Monday with any of our guys. I’m not saying him, but when we have those conversations.”
Barkley has had a return to form year thus far for the Giants through eight weeks of the NFL season and has been one of the driving forces behind New York’s offense. He has 779 yards on 163 attempts rushing this season and five touchdowns.
Outside of last week’s loss to the Seahawks, Barkley has looked like his rookie self.
“Saquon’s a great kid; he’s tough. He’s obviously talented,” Schoen said. “It’s a team game. I think him being healthy this year, you’ve kind of seen who he is and what he can do, whether that’s catching the ball or running the ball. Again, it’s credit to the offensive line and the receivers blocking for him. And he’s taken advantage of those opportunities with his God-given gifts too and helped us a lot. So, I’m pleased with where Saquon is.”
And Jones has not had numbers that pop out at you, but he has made the most of this season and helped orchestrated a number of second-half comebacks made more impressive by the limited options he has had to throw to.
“I think Daniel’s done a good job. Those ‘got to have it’ moments, third downs, fourth quarters when you’ve got to have it,” the Giants GM said. “And I think he’s answered the bell in a lot of those situations. He’s the same guy he was the day we got here in terms of – it’s their time off, and he’s in here at 7:30 this morning having breakfast. It didn’t surprise me a bit. So, he’s a gym rat. He’s always around, and I think he’s done a good job leading the team this year.”
Still, there are nine games that remain in the year as the Giants look to shock everyone further and make the postseason. Those games could also be used to further evaluate the two before the front office makes any decisions on either of their futures in New York.
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The Giants also have other players that could be in the mix as well for extensions. Though, Schoen said, that will depend on a number of factors while they also balance the fact it has only been eight games this season.
“There’s some guys that we’re going to talk about when we look at our UFAs and some of the guys that we could potentially extend. We’re going to have those conversations,” Schoen said.
