The deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign long-term deals with their teams came and went on Monday with none of the three running backs who were tagged inking a multi-year pact. Of the trio, only Tony Pollard has signed his franchise tender, and Pollard is the only one of the three expected to report to training camp. 

Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs have not yet signed, and each of them is expected to hold out for the significant majority of training camp, if not longer. Apparently, though, the pair of All-Pros came at least somewhat close to getting long-term deals done. 

According to the New York Post, for example, the Giants‘ final three-year offer to Barkley would have paid him around $11-11.5 million per year, with guarantees totaling between $22-23 million. Those numbers, per The Post, were within $1-2 million of Barkley’s proposed figures. 

Jacobs, meanwhile, was apparently so close to a deal that he was sitting in the parking lot of the team facility with teammate Maxx Crosby so that he could go in and sign the contract if the deal got done before the 4 p.m. ET deadline, according to NFL Media. There aren’t firmly reported numbers like there are in the case of Barkley’s negotiations, but “We never tried to reset the market,” Jacobs wrote in response to a tweet from BlueWire podcast host Kenny King Jr.

If they sign their franchise tenders, Barkley and Jacobs will, like Pollard, make $10.09 million for the 2023 season. If they reach the market and get franchise-tagged again next year, the tag would pay approximately $12.1 million. That two-year total of around $22.2 million is right around the figure that the Giants reportedly offered Barkley, which is not surprising. 

Still, the lack of deals for this star duo (or trio, including Pollard, though it was less expected that he’d get a long-term deal given that he is coming off a broken leg suffered during the playoffs) highlights just how the NFL has come to view running backs in recent seasons. And the financial realities of those views have been roundly criticized by the league’s current running backs. As for whether those views might change any time soon, the next time we’ll get a chance to find out is next offseason, when all three of these backs, plus Jonathan Taylor, are scheduled to hit the market.