Tag: philadelphia eagles

NFL says Eagles did not violate tampering rules with Saquon Barkley

Shortly after the Philadelphia Eagles signed former New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, Penn State head coach James Franklin made comments that seemed to suggest some tampering had occurred.

“He said that was one of the first things that Howie (Roseman) said to him on the phone as part of his sales pitch,” Franklin said of Barkley. “Not only the Philadelphia Eagles and that that but also the connection with Penn State and the fan base as well. So just a really cool opportunity.”

Had Eagles general manager Howie Roseman contacted Barkley during the two-day legal tampering period, it would have violated NFL protocol.

Per league rules, teams are permitted to enter into negotiations with agents and representatives of pending free agents during the two-day legal tampering period. However, teams cannot speak to players directly unless those players are self-represented.

Shortly after Franklin’s comments, which he later walked back, the NFL opened a review of the Eagles’ signing of Barkley.

On Thursday, the league determined that the Eagles had not violated tampering rules and released the following statement:

After a thorough review of the Philadelphia Eagles signing of Saquon Barkley, the NFL today informed the club that the investigation did not discover sufficient evidence to support a finding that the Anti-Tampering Policy was violated.

In coming to this conclusion, the league reviewed phone logs, text messages and other documents related to Philadelphia’s free agency strategy and decision to sign Barkley. The NFL also interviewed several members of the organization, including Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni, as well as Barkley and Penn State head coach James Franklin. As with every review, should new evidence be uncovered, the league may reopen the investigation.

Had the Eagles violated tampering rules, they would have been fined and/or docked future draft picks.

Philadelphia signed Barkley to a three-year, $37.75 million deal with $26 million guaranteed.

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‘I got your best player’

New York Giants fans are still sore over the free agent defection of star running back Saquon Barkley. Not just because he left but where he ended up, with the hated Philadelphia Eagles.

In a recent interview, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni revealed that he has a standard answer for Giants fans who hassle him about stealing Barkley.

“I typically let it go, but if the guy gets me good enough, I usually say, ‘You know, I got your best player,’” Sirianni said, via Pro Football Talk.

And Sirianni would know. Since the Giants selected Barkley second overall in 2018, he’s faced Philadelphia nine times, scoring seven touchdowns.

“It’s really nice to see him in green,” Sirianni said. “And I know, you know, it’s really nice to see him in there. Like we missed the tackle on him the other day on the sideline. Now we’re not tackling, but you can tell without pads on, you can tell if that guy made the tackle or not. And I had visions back of like him on the sideline, and us watching all these plays on the sideline, of Saquon making somebody miss, and Saquon making somebody miss and doing it again.

“It was like — it brought me back to that and it’s like, ‘Man, I’m glad that I wasn’t happy that our defensive player missed the tackle on this particular one, but I’m really happy that Saquon, that No. 26 is on our side, making the guy miss.’”

The Eagles signed Barkley, the 2018 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and a two-time Pro Bowler, to a three-year, $37.75 million contract in March with $26 million guaranteed.

The Giants and Barkley had been negotiating a new deal for nearly two years but didn’t come close to anything long-term. Big Blue did not make Barkley an offer in free agency, nor did they counter the Eagles’ offer.

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6 games that could be played in primetime

The 2024 NFL regular season schedule will be officially revealed on Wednesday and for the New York Giants, they have several interesting matchups on tap.

Despite their poor play over the past decade, the Giants are often featured in primetime and during the holidays. That held true last season with six primetime games, including an afternoon game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Christmas Day.

Even with low expectations entering the upcoming season, there are several notable Giants games the NFL might want to shine a light on. Here’s a look at six of those.

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All international NFL games are considered primetime and this matchup is a near guarantee. The Giants are no stranger to playing overseas and after being awarded Global Markets Program rights for Germany, it seems inevitable that they end up playing the Carolina Panthers in Munich.

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Games between the Giants and Philadelphia Eagles are often considered for primetime and often end up in primetime despite the one-sided nature of the rivalry in recent years. But now there’s an added interest: running back Saquon Barkley.

When Barkley returns to East Rutherford for the first time as an enemy, the entire football world will want to watch. The NFL can already hear the cha-ching.

Sam Hodde/Getty Images

This is another one that seems obvious. The Giants and Dallas Cowboys often find themselves in a primetime matchup and while that generally takes place in Week 1, that won’t be the case this season. Still, the Cowboys draw ratings and the NFC East rivalry always sells. This one will come at Jurrah World.

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With a home and away against their divisional rivals, this potential primetime game could be played at either location. We’re choosing MetLife Stadium based on the assumption (complete guess) that the Giants host the first game against the Washington Commanders this season. It pits former LSU teammates and first-round draft picks, Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers, against each other.

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Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is 20-1 against NFC opponents as a starter. That lone loss? The Giants and quarterback Daniel Jones. No other explanation is necessary for why the NFL might consider this game for primetime.

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Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is a ratings draw. That’s all there is to it. If this game ends up in primetime it has everything to do with the 27-year-old and nothing to do with the Giants.

Burrow has never faced the Giants.

Read all the best Giants coverage at NorthJersey.com and Giants Wire.

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Saquon Barkley claps back at angry New York Giants fans: ‘Go Birds!’

Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley joined his teammate, wide receiver AJ Brown, courtside at the New York Knicks-Philadelphia 76ers game on Thursday night.

When cameras caught him cheering on Philly, Giants fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, and bashed the team’s former superstar.

After getting wind of the continued hate, Barkley clapped back in a series of tweets.

“It’s been two months,” Barkley wrote. “No way ya can still be this mad! Mother (expletive) can’t even go to a basketball game.”

One fan accused Barkley of “bailing” on the Giants. Once again, the running back was quick to reply.

“Let me educate some of you fans here,” he wrote. “I can’t bail or become a traitor if I never got an offer to come back.. so I went to the organization I felt that was the best and after already being here for a month man I’m excited to be (an) Eagle! Go Birds!”

Although the Giants didn’t counter the Eagles’ free agency offer, they had attempted to re-sign Barkley long-term numerous times, including back in 2022 when he rejected an above-market deal.

Meanwhile, after getting a taste of the Philly crowd, Barkley also expressed his excitement to play at Lincoln Financial Field in 2024.

New Yorkers ultimately got the last laugh, however. Jalen Brunson dropped 41 on the night as the Knicks eliminated the 76ers on their home court.

Read all the best Giants coverage at NorthJersey.com and Giants Wire.



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Eagles’ Parris Campbell confident he can prove New York Giants wrong

Last offseason, when the New York Giants had a glaring need at the wide receiver position, they signed Parris Campbell, among others.

Campbell, who inked a one-year deal, was extremely underwhelming during his time in a Giants uniform.

Fast forward to this offseason and Campbell signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, joining his former Giants teammate Saquon Barkley in the City of Brotherly Love.

Barkley and Campbell will now play the Giants twice a year and will look to stick it to their former team. In fact, Campbell is confident he can do just that.

“Being able to go in and really carve out a role for myself, getting a fair shake and just kind of going from there, I’ll take my chances any day of the week,” Campbell told NFL Network. “I’m confident in the player that I am.”

Campbell will be joining a better offense in Philly than the one led by a revolving door at quarterback and many injuries along the offensive line with the Giants last season.

Talent-wise, Campbell was much closer to the caliber of receivers that are currently on the Giants’ roster and it’s going to be much harder to get his desired target share in Philly.

Perhaps a change of scenery with more structure will be exactly what Campbell needs. However, clearly, Campbell proving his worth with the Eagles is a risk Joe Schoen and company were willing to take.

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Devin Singletary will produce as much as Saquon Barkley

General manager Joe Schoen made a clear statement about where the New York Giants are headed when they let Xavier McKinney and Saquon Barkley walk in free agency.

The message was clear: The Giants would not pay players at non-premium positions.

Given the fact that he left for their division rival Philadelphia Eagles, the departure of Barkley is one that weighed heavy on Giants fans and even co-owner John Mara.

Instead of paying Barkley, the Giants moved in another direction when they signed Devin Singletary.

Following the signing, it wasn’t long before the stat comparisons hit X, formerly known as Twitter, comparing Singletary and Barkley.

Recently, an anonymous NFL executive told The Athletic that he believes Singletary will produce as much as Barkley in 2024.

“I actually like the stuff that they did,” the exec said. “Saquon is a good back, but you are talking about a running back. Singletary is going to produce as much as Saquon did for them at a fraction of the cost. They may get a better version of Brian Burns than Carolina was getting because there is a human element to it. You don’t like where you are playing, you are not having success, it affects you.”

Singletary had the most carries of his career last season. He comes at a cheaper price point and historically, has been much more durable than Barkley.

The Giants should have an improved offensive line than what Barkley had to deal with during his time in a Giants uniform, so that should facilitate some added production as well.

Obviously, Singletary is not the home run threat that Barkley is. However, if he is able to stay healthy, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Singletary could, in fact, produce as much as Barkley.

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Giants vs. Eagles named one of NFL’s best revenge games of 2024

When the Philadelphia Eagles swooped in and signed running back Saquon Barkley, it sent shockwaves across the NFL.

Blood boiled in New York as the Giants star defected to their fiercest rival, setting off an emotionally charged exchange between Barkley and one of Big Blue’s greatest all-time players, Tiki Barber.

Other former Giants also chimed in, as did fans — many burning their Barkley jerseys.

Because of the heated nature of Barkley’s move within the division, Adam Rank of NFL Network believes Giants-Eagles will be among the NFL’s best revenge games of 2024.

Let’s start off with a banger — just like they do at WrestleMania, which is taking place in Philadelphia this year. Now, it was former Giants running back Tiki Barber who (jokingly?) said Saquon Barkley was dead to him after the star RB signed a big-money deal with the rival Eagles. I get it. There is no love lost between Giants and Eagles fans. It’s one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL. But I actually think this was kind of a great move, and one that Giants fans shouldn’t be too upset about. Saquon played some fine football during his six seasons in New York, earning a healthy payday with a team that is still in its Super Bowl window (we hope, anyway).

The Giants are in a spot where devoting big money to a running back isn’t the move. The Eagles, on the other hand, probably shouldn’t let their quarterback run for 15 touchdowns, so for them, this signing made a lot of sense. I understand that it’s disturbing for some to think of Saquon in an Eagles uniform, and that Giants fans will be upset when he has a Christian McCaffrey-like impact with their division rival. But dude is from Allentown, Pennsylvania, (fine, Whitehall Township) and should be allowed to go home. Plus, folks should blame the team that didn’t want to pay Saquon before getting mad at the player himself.

The Giants organization, from co-owner John Mara to head coach Brian Daboll, have said all the right things. They’ve praised Barkley on his way out the door and wished him success in all but two regular season games.

And for his part, Barkley has maintained decorum.

Still, there’s little doubt that Barkley wants to make an example out of the Giants, and playing them twice per season undoubtedly factored into his decision. He wants to feast on his former team and they’ll be desperate to stop him.

It may be relatively calm leading up to those games given Barkley’s classy nature but make no mistake about it, Rank is right — Giants vs. Eagles is going to be more electrifying than ever in 2024.

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John Mara explains why Saquon Barkley wasn’t traded at 2023 deadline

The New York Giants failed to deal running back Saquon Barkley at the 2023 trade deadline despite sporting a 2-6 record at the time. That decision came back to haunt them when Barkley inked a long-term deal with the Philadelphia Eagles at the onset of free agency.

The Giants ultimately lost Barkley and got nothing in return.

Although they recognized the possibility of being caught flat-footed, Giants co-owner John Mara says they were still attempting to compete at the time so they gambled on keeping Barkley.

“I hate trading guys right at the trade deadline because it almost signals that you’re giving up on the season,” Mara said this week at the Annual League Meeting, via the New York Daily News. “And Saquon, I was still hoping to be able to sign him at some point. It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to do it.”

Although Mara says they weren’t giving up on the season, that didn’t stop general manager Joe Schoen from trading defensive lineman Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks.

In the eyes of Schoen, Barkley was more valuable offensively than Williams was defensively.

“(Barkley) was one of our better offensive players, and we weren’t giving up,” Schoen said. “We still wanted him to go out there and perform for us . . . When (Daniel Jones) was coming back from the neck injury, we wanted to make sure they could go out there and operate. I think Saquon was a big part of that at that time.”

Mara wanted Schoen to find a way to make it work but ultimately, Barkley departed. The Giants never even made him a contract offer.

“That was kind of an ongoing discussion through the year that it could come to this, and they knew my feelings that I was hoping it didn’t come to this,” Mara said. “But at the end of the day, I know sometimes every once in a while I read, ‘Oh, he’s meddling, he’s meddling.’ No. We’ve run our organization the same way for many, many years.”

That also means, contrary to popular belief, that the four-year contract given to Jones was the decision of Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.

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Saquon Barkley going to Eagles made Giants owner John Mara ‘sick’

New York Giants CEO John Mara told reporters at the NFL annual league meeting in Orlando on Monday that watching star running back Saquon Barkley leave for the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency made him “sick.”

Barkley signed a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the Eagles on the first day of free agency, ending his six-year association with Big Blue.

The Giants did not make an offer or a counter offer to Barkley during free agency but had been speaking to his reps about a new contract.

The Giants did not want to use the franchise tag on Barkley for a second straight year, hoping they could work out a deal that would pay him less than the $12.4 million franchise tender price.

Over the past few years, the Giants had offered Barkley several deals, some reportedly for more money than the one he recently accepted from the Eagles.

Mara had dangled the idea that Barkley would be a “Giant for life,” but in this day and age of the NFL that has seen the devaluing of the running back position, that wish would be a hard one to fulfill.



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New York Giants’ Brian Daboll talks Saquon Barkley leaving for Eagles

Every once in while a player comes along and leaves a lasting impression on a franchise. Such is the case of running back Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants.

Barkley was selected second overall by the Giants in the 2018 NFL draft and had a stellar six-year career with Big Blue, becoming a fan-favorite on and off the field.

But the NFL is a business, and sometimes a harsh one. Barkley was not offered a contract by the Giants and then signed on with the hated Philadelphia Eagles.

Still, the Giants hold no ill feelings. Head coach Brian Daboll knows that player movement is a necessary part of the NFL landscape.

“This is what it is every year in the NFL. You meet great people, whether it’s coaches, players, staff members, and unfortunately everybody doesn’t stick together the entire time, it’s not what it was 30, 40 years ago,” Daboll told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

“I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Saquon and all the players that went on to other places. It’s a special group when you’re going through an NFL season, you’ve got to go through ups and downs,” he added. “Wish him all the best, except when he is playing the Giants.”

The Giants will now move to a running-back-by-committee approach after signing Devin Singletary in free agency to pair with second-year back Eric Gray. They may also target a running back in the draft.

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