One of the strategies being discussed is the Giants tagging Jones with either the Franchise or Non-Exclusive Tag. Both have a lot of merit if his agent has a lot of interest from desperate QB needy teams like Carolina, Indy, Houston, Vegas and maybe the Jets. Franchising him locks down Jones or at least guarantees two first round picks should we get outbid.

One of the key downsides to this strategy is it puts us in a very difficult position with less leverage with Barkley. There is no doubt Barkley sees this as his chance for a big contract. He can look around and see guys like Elliott who are not performing at his level getting huge dollars. There would be a real chance we would get outbid and get nothing in return for our #2 draft pick.

If we want to keep Barkley the only chance we have is to sign Jones to a long term deal. I think that is exactly what Schoen is going to do and the price has definitely gone up over the past two months.