Saquon Barkley might pass on attending training camp.
Andrew Brandt doesn’t seem to believe that’ll be met with much resistance.
Barkley and the Giants were unable to reach an agreement on a long-term contract extension prior to Monday’s deadline. New York gave him the franchise tag at the beginning of the offseason, which he has not signed. Because he doesn’t technically have a deal signed, he can’t be fined for missing training camp.
So, that is a route that Barkley could potentially take. The more drastic approach would be sitting out not just camp, but the entire season, like Le’Veon Bell did with the Jets.
Appearing on 670 The Score’s Mully & Haugh, Brandt, a former NFL executive, responded to the possibility of Barkley holding out.
"Well, I think the training camp thing is real. And I don’t think – in their private moments, I don’t think the Giants or Raiders really care. I really don’t,” Brandt said. “So you’re telling me Saquon Barkley is not going to get hit for a month? OK, sure. Or Josh Jacobs.
“But the bigger issue is the season. And Bell was an anomaly, and Bell in my opinion never earned that money back. (Is Barkley) going to give up 600- or 700-thousand dollars a week? If I’m an agent, I can’t advise that. I just can’t. Because how is the team going to respond? Are they going to give him a huge, new contract? No. They’re not. They’ve already shown that they’re not.
“So I keep coming back to, we don’t have an answer for this. The hold-in thing, that has shown to have some results. Where you come in and are kind of a pain in the you-know-what. Could that happen?”
Barkley is not expected to report to training camp. He has left the door open to not playing at all this season, saying on the Money Matters podcast that one was to demonstrate his value to the Giants would be to not show up.
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