Saquon Barkley is a future Hall of Famer who “deserves to be paid,” Giants captain Xavier McKinney said Wednesday.
“He deserves every penny and he’s worth a lot, because he is truly a guy that can turn around a whole organization, a whole team, [with] his play and his leadership,” McKinney, 24, said on Wednesday’s Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast.
Barkley and McKinney are both important, pending free agents that Giants GM Joe Schoen said the team would like to have back. And they have each other’s back entering the process.
“Saquon is a phenomenal running back. He’s a great dude,” McKinney said. “He’s a dude that deserves to be paid. I’ve been saying this for a minute: that’s somebody that I truly believe is a great running back, and I think he’s gonna go on to have a Hall of Fame career.
“But he’s done everything for the team, play-wise, leadership-wise, he’s always there,” He added. “He’s a brother of mine, a brother for a lot of us, not just a teammate.”
McKinney said he has spoken to Barkley several times and “let him know whatever he needs me to do, if there is anything I can do, to be able to help him and get him in a situation to where he can get that money, whatever I can do… I don’t know how much I can really do, but I’m always there for him because he’s always been there for me.”
Kayvon Thibodeaux recently said he believes Barkley should have gotten paid last year before quarterback Daniel Jones. McKinney said he wants everyone to get paid.
“Regardless of who’s getting paid and who’s getting paid what, I think that as players we still gotta go out there and we still got a job to do,” McKinney said. “For me, I’m always for everybody getting paid. Because at the end of the day we’re all trying to make that money to be able to change the way we live, to be able to change how our family lives and so on.
“So regardless of who gets paid, we still got a job to do,” he added. “We all have one common goal and that’s to go out there and win. That’s to go out there and win championships. That’s ultimately what we’re looking to do.”
‘X’ & WINK: ‘REALLY GOOD’ RELATIONSHIP
McKinney also revealed that he reached out to former Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale following his resignation in January and that the two have a “really good relationship.”
This flies in the face of the misperception that McKinney and Martindale couldn’t coexist after the safety vented some frustration in Week 9.
“Just to clear it up, I’ve seen so many different things about, ‘Oh he’s saying whatever about Wink Martindale’; we have a good relationship,” McKinney said. “I talked to him. We’ve talked. Obviously in any relationship with anybody, nothing is ever gonna be perfect. You’re not gonna agree with everything. Sometimes we weren’t on the same page, but we ended up getting on the same page. And I think that’s all that mattered.
“But we still have a really good relationship. I actually talked to him when he resigned,” McKinney continued. “We talked and we texted. And I told him how much I appreciated him and how much respect that I have for him, and how much he helped me out throughout the season and helped me learn and helped me grow as a person and as a player.”
So, McKinney said, “we always are gonna have a good connection regardless.”
The University of Michigan, as of early February, was closing a deal to make Martindale the national champions’ new defensive coordinator for 2024.
Former Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen replaced Martindale in New York.
