Giants, Saquon Barkley agrees to one-year contract worth slightly more than franchise tag

Star running back Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants have surprisingly reached an agreement on a new one-year, $11 million contract that includes a $2 million signing bonus.

The deal is worth the same as the $10.1 million Barkley would have made by signing the franchise tag tender, but the Giants agreed to add $900,000 in incentives so that Barkley can earn up to $11 million, and to pay $2 million up front now, rather than make the player wait until the regular season starts to begin earning his salary.

After missing the deadline to sign a new long-term contract last week, under NFL rules, Barkley can’t sign a multi-year deal with the Giants this season, but he can sign a one-year deal that differs from the franchise tender, and that’s exactly what he’s done.

After this season, the Giants can either franchise tag Barkley again, sign him to a long-term contract, or let him test free agency.

His long-term future still remains up in-the-air. But the bottom line is that Barkley is staying with the Giants this year, and will be at training camp before the start of the new season in September.