New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen came into his job with a plan to acquire, develop, and retain talent that could be considered part of the team’s foundation for the foreseeable future.

Although Schoen wasn’t in charge when the Giants drafted left tackle Andrew Thomas and defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, Schoen was smart enough to recognize those two players are core, young pieces of this team worth retaining. So rather than delay–Lawrence was in the option year of his rookie deal, whereas Thomas had a couple of years left on his first contract–Schoen locked those two up long-term.

Schoen also did the same thing with kicker Graham Gano, an older veteran but a very important one whose contract was about to run out.

In being proactive, Schoen removed most of the potentially toughest contract negotiations from his plate ahead of the 2024 off-season. But two are still looming: running back Saquon Barkley and safety Xavier McKinney.

We’ll save McKinney for another article as we want to focus on Barkley, the Giants’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, the man who, for the early part of his career, was the main face of the franchise and a player who has, at times, caused divisiveness among the fan base given his draft status back in 2018.