Last month, Saquon Barkley wrote on social media that he “never got an offer to come back” to the Giants before signing with the Eagles in free agency. The trailer for the upcoming season of Hard Knocks seems to contradict that.
In the trailer, Giants General Manager Joe Schoen is shown on the phone, apparently with Barkley, seeming to indicate that the Giants want to keep Barkley and are hoping he’ll try to work out a deal with them before leaving for another team.
“Saquon, can you give me your word on that, or are you not going to give us a chance?” Schoen says on the phone.
After Barkley signed with the Eagles, the NFL investigated whether the Eagles had tampered by talking to Barkley before it was legal for teams to talk to free agents. The NFL ultimately did not discover sufficient evidence to discipline the Eagles for tampering.
The brief clip in the Hard Knocks trailer doesn’t shed any additional light on when Barkley first talked to the Eagles and what his discussions with the Giants were like, but the full show may answer some questions about what Schoen tried to do to keep Barkley, and why Barkley ultimately left.
The upcoming season of Hard Knocks will be the first of its kind, following a team through free agency, the draft and other offseason events. Episodes will air each Tuesday in July on HBO.