New York Giants never offered Josh Jacobs a contract, after all

The Athletic caused a stir over the weekend, issuing a report that suggested the New York Giants offered free agent running back Josh Jacobs a massive deal that was subsequently rejected.

Author Dan Pompei wrote that general manager Joe Schoen had offered Jacobs between $3 and $4 million more than he ultimately signed for with the Green Bay Packers.

The rejection, Pompei said, was due to New York State taxes, the MetLife Stadium turf, an overbearing media, and several other minor issues.

The Giants came on strong with an offer between $3 million and $4 million more than he eventually accepted. But Jacobs was turned off by the New York taxes, lifestyle, media and the artificial turf at MetLife Stadium.

Ultimately, that didn’t happen.

On Sunday night, Pompei issued a retraction and correction to his report, revealing that the Giants never offered Jacobs any kind of deal.

Okay so since this came out, a league source tells me the Giants never made an offer to Jacobs. Apologies for the spikes in blood pressures. And please permit Joe Schoen to see another sunrise. https://t.co/QVc7ACgOon

— Dan Pompei (@danpompei) September 1, 2024

This isn’t to say the Giants didn’t negotiate with Jacobs because he was discussed as a potential option to replace Saquon Barkley, as we saw on HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.” However, what’s now clear is that no formal offer was ever made — particularly, the massive offer Pompei initially suggested.

Had Pompei’s initial account been accurate, it also would have cast a dark shadow over NFL Films and the Giants for omitting such a noteworthy detail from Hard Knocks. After all, their appearance on the docuseries has already generated league-wide criticism as it is.

But, no. The Giants did not undervalue Barkley only to overvalue Jacobs. Instead, they settled on a fair market value for Devin Singletary and will enter the 2024 regular season using a running back-by-committee approach.