Kayvon Thibodeaux is “mad” that the Giants cut an enormous check to Daniel Jones before Saquon Barkley.
The Giants opted to sign their quarterback to a four-year, $160 million contract extension last offseason and stick their running back with the dreaded franchise tag (one yr, $10.1 million).
After Barkley’s multiyear extension talks broke down, he played the 2023 season on the tag without making a stink and now his future with the Giants is uncertain as he waits to search out out if he’ll get a multiyear extension, one other franchise tag or be allowed to check free agency.
“I think in Daniel Jones,” Thibodeaux said Thursday on “7PM in Brooklyn” with former NBA star Carmelo Anthony and The Kid Mero. “What I’m mad about is that Saquon — because if you happen to take a look at the sport, the tape, Saquon was accountable for at the very least 30 percent of our explosive plays, talking in regards to the yr [2022] we won the playoff game.
“So, for me and for the integrity of working together and labor, and all of us consider the identical things, I feel like Saquon must have got paid first. That’s what I feel.”
Barkley has no shortage of supporters within the locker room, where his leadership, production because the team’s best offensive playmaker six years running and impact in the neighborhood as a two-time Walter Payton Man of the Yr nominee carries respect.
Thibodeaux emerged because the Giants’ best pass-rusher in his second NFL season but still is one season away from with the ability to negotiate a latest contract.
The Giants have used Barkley’s injury history — three missed games in 2023 — and the league-wide devaluation of running backs as leverage in negotiations.
“I don’t know the back end — perhaps it’s a franchise [tag], perhaps it’s an extension, perhaps it’s blah, blah, blah,” said Thibodeaux, who expressed confidence within the front office’s roster-building ability through the draft. “That’s none of my business. I even have to concentrate on me. … Because we see it. As a team, we all know who’s putting in work and never.”
Along with totaling 1,242 yards from scrimmage and 10 of the Giants’ 25 offensive touchdowns, Barkley’s backing of undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito when things were going haywire this season sparked a belief from teammates and fans that led to the “Tommy Cutlets” phenomenon.
DeVito returned the support recently in an enormous way.
“I would like them to call the Brink’s truck and are available drop off the money on the front door,” DeVito told Complex.com during a joint interview with Barkley. “Now [my] hope is for the Giants [because] I would like him to be within the backfeld with me and all my team because I believe he’s the very best teammate within the NFL, the very best teammate I’ve had around … in my life. Hands down, obviously.”
Barkley has said repeatedly that he desires to be with the Giants for his whole profession and is looking for a “fair” multiyear extension, but he has begun accepting that it won’t be within the cards.
The deadline for a tag is March 5 — about every week before free agency opens.
offseason. Charles Wenzelberg/NY Post
DeVito — who could possibly be anywhere from No. 1 to No. 3 on the quarterback depth chart when the season opens — doesn’t wish to picture the Giants without Barkley.
“I hope it’s with the Giants. But when not, someone call the bank since the bank is coming because this man must receives a commission,” DeVito said, before speaking on to Barkley. “You’re my man, you’re my man, for real. Now you may come run it back and we will get right. But at the identical time, I would like you to get your paper, what I mean?”
Barkley called it a “great answer.”
