Saquon Reveals Giants Denied Trade Request, Contract Talks Were 'Spit in My Face'

Philadelphia Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley's tenure with the New York Giants will be under the microscope following the upcoming release of his documentary, Saquon, on Amazon Prime Video.

Per Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, the documentary revealed that Barkley asked Giants owner John Mara if he could seek a trade ahead of the 2023 season, but was denied. Barkley also spoke out against the Giants, expressing his feelings of being undervalued during contract negotiations.

"It was a joke," Barkley said of the discussions. "It really was a spit in my face. And then come out here and give me the ball 35 times. They really don't appreciate me to be completely honest. They think they are trying to run me into the dirt, get what they can get and then hopefully something bad happens so he can f--king go somewhere else."

Saquon will be released on Thursday in conjunction with Prime Video's broadcast of the Thursday Night Football game between the Eagles and Giants. The documentary features video diaries of real-time footage from the last five years, starting with Barkley's recovery from ACL surgery in 2020 and ending with him leading Philadelphia to the Super Bowl title last season.

Things take a turn when a contract standoff between the Giants and Barkley runs from November 2022 through March 2024. Barkley said he felt penalized for turning down the first contract offer made during the bye week in 2022 when he carried the ball a career-high 35 times in the next game.

"Everyone gets to f--k me over," Barkley said at one point in the documentary. "But I can never do what I want to do."

Dunleavy noted that there were multiple instances where Barkley contemplated "doing 's–t that's not in my character' — like airing a trade demand or a dirty-laundry Tweet." However, he never chose that route and lowered his asking price more than once while Giants general manager Joe Schoen didn't budge from his stance in negotiations.

On the final day for franchise-tagged players to sign long-term extensions in July 2023, Barkley formally asked Mara if he could seek a trade.

"I'm not going to do that," Mara told Barkley. "That makes no sense for us. To be honest with you, it's not going to be in your long-term best interest to do that. There's no way that I would allow that at this point. You are too valuable to this franchise."

Barkley played in 14 games for the Giants in 2023 before signing with the Eagles that offseason and going on to set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a single season including the playoffs and winning his first career Super Bowl title.

"I would've signed for $10 million, $11 million [per year] if they would've just operated a whole different way," Barkley said of the Giants before signing with the Eagles in free agency. "If I felt in my heart they tried their best to get it done."