Saquon Barkley had an interesting offseason, as he hit the free agent market and ended up spurning the New York Giants to sign with their NFC East rival in the Philadelphia Eagles. Fans were given a peak behind the curtain as to how negotiations between the Giants and Barkley went in the offseason edition of Hard Knocks, and the conversations between the two sides were pretty eye-opening.
Giants fans certainly weren't happy to see Barkley leave for the Eagles, so it was fair to wonder how the star running back would be portrayed in the show. The only issue was that Barkley had no idea that his conversations were being recorded for Hard Knocks until he saw them in the show. Despite that, Philly's newest offensive weapon admitted that the show showed a fairly accurate representation of what happened, and he credited them for doing that when they could have made him look like the bad guy.
“At the end of the day, I also think they have control of the edits and they could have painted me to look really bad, and they kind of gave the truth. ‘Hard Knocks' was unique, but that's in the past. I lived it; I got to watch it; and now I'm ready to focus on what matters most — and that's being here with my teammates and getting better each day.” – Saquon Barkley, ESPN
Saquon Barkley ready to move on from Giants, Hard Knocks drama
This is a pretty wild admission from Barkley. You'd figure that the Giants would have let him know that their discussions were going to at least be recorded for Hard Knocks, but he had no idea that was happening. He didn't say he was shocked by the development, but it's clear he was kept in the dark about it until he saw the show for himself.
Regardless, it doesn't seem like it's something he's all that concerned about now. Instead, he's working on acclimating himself on his new Eagles team, and assuming he can hit the ground running and stay healthy, their offense could end up being particularly lethal in 2024. This situation was certainly strange, but Barkley is moving past it, and chances are he won't care too much if Philly can pick up a pair of victories over New York in his first year with his new team.