Giants' Matt Breida shares harsh reality for Saquon Barkley, running backs

New York Giants backup running back Matt Breida shared a harsh reality for teammate Saquon Barkley and other ball-carriers around the NFL regarding how teams value the position in the modern pass-heavy league. 

"It’s so tough," Breida told reporters about the overall situation, per Bob Brookover of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "I feel like these conversations need to happen when the next (collective bargaining agreement) is up. We’re locked into the CBA until after 2030...so there’s not really much we can do on that subject. But it takes just one guy to get paid really well to make the market change. Hopefully next year or the year after that someone will get paid at that position and the market will be better." 

It's been a particularly rough offseason for running backs. Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook were released by their former clubs, and top-tier talents such as Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard failed to receive long-term deals ahead of the July 17 deadline for teams to sign franchise-tagged players to such agreements. 

While the Zoom call recently completed by running backs generated headlines, Breida is correct in pointing out that the current CBA puts players at any one position in a tough spot. Short of a league-wide strike, there's little backs can do anytime soon about what teams are and aren't willing to pay them. 

Barkley said Thursday that skipping training camp and even regular-season games to protest the tag worth $10.091M for 2023 was "a play that I had," but he admitted doing so likely wouldn't help his cause in negotiations next March. The fact he caved and inked what is essentially an altered one-year tag worth up to $11M if he reaches incentives and the Giants make the playoffs indicates his threats of missing any meaningful time over the next couple of months were empty, at best. 

Barkley added on Thursday that he made a decision for the upcoming season that would benefit "myself and my family." Breida praised the 26-year-old for what he suggested was at least somewhat of a selfless act. 

"I don’t think people give him enough credit for being a team player," Breida continued about Barkley. "People may look at him as being selfish, but he’s a big team guy. He’s a big leader on this team and he wants the whole team to do well, not just himself. I respect that a lot about him because I do think there are people that might look at him like, 'Oh, it’s me, me, me,' and that’s not Saquon."