Saquon Barkley dropped a well-timed documentary Thursday morning on Prime Video, hours earlier than the Eagles invaded MetLife Stadium to tackle the Giants.
“SAQUON” options extra intriguing behind-the-scenes moments of Barkley’s Giants negotiations and eventual signing in Philadelphia.
There’s a scene with Barkley enjoying EA Sports activities’ Madden online game the whole time he speaks with Giants GM Joe Schoen, who’s making an attempt to handle the general public optics of his operating again’s discontent.
“I was snapping while I was on the phone with him, by the way,” Barkley says to a pal after hanging up with Schoen. “I won, 35-0.”
There’s a cellphone name with Barkley asking co-owner John Mara instantly if he’ll log out on buying and selling him in July 2023.
“You’re telling me you want me to be a Giant, I’m telling you I want to be a Giant for life, but the negotiation and the contracts I’m getting sent don’t really feel like it’s matching that same energy,” Barkley tells Mara.
And there are uncooked moments of frustration, like Barkley’s feedback on Nov. 13, 2022, after his preliminary contract talks with the Giants and a 24-16 house loss to the Houston Texans.
“It’s not even the fact that we didn’t get nothing done. It was a joke. It was really a spit in my face,” Barkley says on the cellphone to a confidant. “And then to come out here and give me the ball 35 times, they really don’t appreciate me, to be completely honest. They’re trying to run me into the dirt, get what they can get and hopefully something bad happens so he can go somewhere else.”
The reminder of Barkley’s meteoric rise to Offensive Participant of the Yr and Tremendous Bowl champion in his first yr in Philadelphia, although, is now not the worst embarrassment for the Giants.
Now it’s Daniel Jones’ star flip with the Indianapolis Colts and the quarterback’s current remark that he skilled the “next level” of NFL preparation when he signed with the Minnesota Vikings after the Giants launched him.
“I thought I worked really hard, I tried to work really hard, and it was important for me to prepare, watch film, study. And I think I did that,” Jones mentioned of his time in New York on the Fitz & Whit podcast. “However then going to Minnesota, I noticed how Sam [Darnold] ready, how Kevin [O’Connell] ready these guys, Josh McCown … that crew, and the way detailed they have been day in and time out on each little little bit of the plan and the way they’re gonna research it, what they’re on the lookout for, strolling by it, quizzing one another within the quarterback room.
“That made a big impression on me,” Jones continued. “And I was like, ‘OK, this is maybe the next level of some of that stuff.’ And I think that changed. I think Kevin, just how aggressive he was in the playcalling. It’s play fast, but it’s a lot of drop back shots, taking their chances. And that made an impression on me, too.”
Jones now has totally blossomed with Indianapolis coach Shane Steichen and has shattered a few of Peyton Manning’s data whereas main Indianapolis to a 4-1 begin.
The Colts lead the whole NFL in factors per drive (3.39) and rank second in factors per sport (32.6). They turned the primary NFL workforce since 1940 to punt solely as soon as of their first three video games.
Jones is one in every of solely two quarterbacks within the NFL, together with the Rams’ Matt Stafford, to publish a 105.0 or greater quarterback score in 4 completely different video games this season. He ranks third within the NFL with 1,290 passing yards. He has a 71.3% completion share.
And his sack share has plummeted to 2.6%, per Professional Soccer Reference, in comparison with 8.53% in 2022, 15.79% in 2023 and seven.84% in 2024.
Schoen and Daboll have been employed by the Giants within the first place as a result of they have been celebration to Buffalo’s drafting and training of quarterback Josh Allen. They’re paid handsomely as a result of they’re alleged to be specialists with QBs.
However Jones’ success and feedback reveal the ugly fact: It acquired rather a lot higher for him as soon as he left New York.
It will get rather a lot higher for lots of gamers as soon as they go away the Giants.
It’s not nearly escaping a foul workforce on the sphere for a greater one, both. It’s additionally about getting away from a franchise that leaks and scapegoats gamers and coaches like Jones and others when the whole lot goes flawed to guard those that are actually at fault.
Barkley rewrote his profession narrative shortly as soon as he acquired out from below the darkish cloud in East Rutherford, N.J. Now Jones has, too.
The record of gamers who discovered greener pastures as soon as they left is lengthy: there’s second-team All-Professional security Xavier McKinney and Seahawks starters Leonard Williams and Julian Love.
Sterling Shepard, who the Giants practically ran out of the league, simply caught a fourth quarter landing for the Buccaneers final Sunday.
Tight finish Darren Waller retired quite than proceed enjoying for the Giants, acquired traded to Miami and now has three touchdowns in two video games for the Dolphins.
Even Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts needs to be a cautionary story about being related to Daboll.
The 2017 Alabama Crimson Tide needed to bench Hurts at halftime of a nationwide championship sport with Daboll as their one-year offensive coordinator. In 2025, Hurts gained a Tremendous Bowl MVP in a blowout win over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs dynasty.
The Eagles’ Barkley, now having moved on from his ugly Giants spat on the finish, makes clear that his new Prime Video documentary is about far more than simply his controversial departure from New York to Philly.
“People try to make it about the Giants and me getting tagged and letting me walk, that’s not it,” Barkley says within the movie. “It’s the growth of a professional athlete and how you go through ups and downs.”
These tales collectively, although, are all in regards to the Giants: first Barkley, now Jones.
How way more proof do John Mara and Steve Tisch want that they should overhaul the whole lot. Not simply the GM and coach, however how they rent and empower the following leaders of their franchise to make modifications, as effectively.
