Latest Hard Knocks suggests someone was tampering with Saquon Barkley

Participation in offseason Hard Knocks has not been ideal for the Giants. It also could be problematic for some other team.

The third episode of the series creates the impression that someone was tampering with running back Saquon Barkley.

The show opens with G.M. Joe Schoen taking a call from Barkley’s agent, Ed Berry. It seems to be, based on the rest of the episode and Schoen’s ultra-casual work attire, a call that happened on the weekend before the opening of the negotiating window, on Monday, March 11.

During the conversation, Schoen acknowledges that Berry was going to see what else was out there, before giving the Giants a chance to match it.

“This was kind of the whole point,” Schoen says. “You go out, find out what it is, and I’ll just say, ‘Yeah, we’re not gonna be able to do that.’ Or, ‘Yes, yes, we can.”

Berry apparently informs Schoen regarding what else is out there — $12.5 million per year, with $25 million guaranteed. And it’s clear that, if the Giants offer that, Barkley will take it.

That said, it’s unclear which team that number came from. Later in the episode, Schoen says he’s hearing the Bears are driving up the price and the Eagles are out. So maybe it was the Bears. Or maybe it was the Eagles. Or maybe it was someone else.

The next question becomes whether the NFL will do anything about it. In exonerating the Eagles for speaking directly to Barkley during the 52-hour negotiating window, the league said this: “As with every review, should new evidence be uncovered, the league may reopen the investigation.”

If the Eagles were the team talking to Berry before March 11, that would count as new evidence. And the potential violation would shift from talking directly to Barkley after the negotiating window opened to negotiating with Barkley’s agent before the negotiating window opened.

The Giants didn’t seem to be bothered by it. Schoen arguably encouraged the effort to gauge the market, even if it happened before teams were permitted to share that information with the player’s agent.

Technically, it doesn’t matter. Tampering is tampering, even if the team victimized by it welcomes it. As a practical matter, however, it would seem unfair for the league to whack the Eagles or the Bears or something else for participating in a process that gave the Giants the clarity they wanted in order to make a decision about what to offer Barkley.