Najee Harris sounds off on New York Giants
Only shortly after New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley signed his new deal with the team, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris offered his take on Barkley’s situation. Harris said the Giants screwed Barkley over, after having one of the best seasons of his career, according to the New York Post.
The NFL running back market has been the talk of the town recently, with multiple running backs battling against their agents and organizations. The situation has gone so far that several standout free agent running backs created a meeting on how they’re going to get paid fairly. One back who has not been scared to voice his opinion is Harris.
“Saquon accumulated for almost 30% of the offense,” Harris said Wednesday, via ESPN. “Why can’t you look at that and say, ‘OK, well he said he’s not trying to break the market or set the market, but he’s trying to get compensated of what he thinks is fair’ … I know that they know themselves, that ain’t fair what he’s getting. He wanted a long contract to know his security there.
“Right now, he doesn’t have no security. They’re just going to probably utilize him the same way. And if something happens to him again, they’re going to probably look somewhere else.”
Last season, Barkley helped lead the Giants to a 9-7-1 record and to the second round in the playoffs. Without Barkley, New York wouldn’t have seen the success they saw last season. As Harris stated, Barkley accumulated for almost 30% of the squad’s offense. With 1,312 rushing yards, the most of his career, Barkley carried the Giants back to the postseason. Now, the Giants are screwing Barkley over, according to Harris. But are they actually?
In the past, Barkley has suffered with injuries. Most notably back in 2020, Barkley suffered an ACL tear and MCL sprain in the second week of the season, leaving him out for the rest of the season. If I were the Giants, I wouldn’t give Barkley the deal of the century. He is injury prone and aging. With the running back market all over the place, why would you want to pay an aging and injury prone back $14-16 million a year? You wouldn’t.
“You guys are using us to accomplish what you guys want,” Harris said. “And then when it’s time for us to re-up or ask for something that we think is right, you guys just turn the cheek and say, ‘Well, you have wear and tear.’”
Does Barkley deserve a good pay day? Yes, of course he does. He is an incredible talent and produced to the highest level last year. But with injury concerns and the way the market is shifting, it would be foolish to give him one of the biggest deals of all time.
“For them to say that the running back position, you’re slotted at this much money, I don’t think that that’s right because of what we’re asked to do,” Harris said, who has two years left on his rookie contract.
“There’s a lot of running backs who’s doing receiving. There’s a lot of running backs doing blocking and all that stuff. For you to just say running back and that’s our market, and if it doesn’t hit that, then it goes down lower. That’s not right.”
With his new contract, the Giants added incentives for the former Penn State running back. Saquon Barkley will be able to earn an extra $909,000 this next year if he hits every goal.
Keep in mind, Saquon Barkley only signed a one-year deal this offseason to stay with the Giants. If he gets injured or doesn’t live up to a worthy price, Barkley might find himself in the hole that other running backs are trying to climb out of.
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