Joe Schoen’s Friday made John Mara’s recent vote of confidence in his GM look even worse.
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley and Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney were both named to the Associated Press’ All-Pro First Team after Schoen let them walk in free agency last spring.
No Giants players made either the AP First or Second All-Pro teams.
And a damning anecdote about Schoen came out in an ESPN.com story about the Giants’ dysfunctional 3-14 season.
Schoen, whose negotiations with Barkley became publicly contentious and personal in 2023-24, further damaged the locker room’s trust in the Giants’ operation this season with his behavior surrounding former Giants corner Nick McCloud, according to the report.
The Giants wanted McCloud to take a pay cut before a Week 4 game against the Cowboys that McCloud was set to start. McCloud wanted to keep playing on the one-year, $2.98 million deal he had signed as a restricted free agent in the offseason.
So Schoen allegedly told McCloud’s representatives: “Don’t pay October’s rent, all right? As soon as I can replace him, I’m going to replace him. I’m not f–king around.”
Then the Giants GM hung up the phone.
McCloud started four more Giants games before being released on Nov. 5 and signing with the San Francisco 49ers.
Those kinds of vindictive and personal comments have been and will continue to be deterrents to prospective free agents, both players and coaches.
Dealing with players and agents like that creates a reputation for a GM and a team around the league.
It’s alarming that Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch would endorse this kind of behavior and stand by Schoen, whom they pay to represent the franchise in a positive way.
The other option is that they were unaware of it, but that would be damning, too, because these stories are not secrets in the NFL.
Mara, meanwhile, may want to rethink his statement that “we had a really good free agency period” last spring, as well.
That was the period that Schoen let Barkley sign with the Eagles and McKinney sign with the Packers.
Barkley just ran for 2,005 yards and scored 15 total touchdowns for the NFC East champion and No. 2-seeded Eagles, while McKinney snatched eight interceptions for the No. 7 seed Packers.
Their teams will face each other this weekend in the NFC’s Wild Card round.
The Giants will watch from their couches and, apparently, cross their fingers that players and agents and other teams don’t read or talk to each other.