After yesterday, does every single RB in the NFL want to retire?!

John Breach, CBSSports.com, part of the Pick 6 Super Friends joins us as we are now, I don't know how many hours, almost, we're about 20 hours past the deadline for Barkley, Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard and maybe some others to sign their franchise tag or the deadline to sign a long-term deal. That didn't happen. Just your thoughts on what we saw yesterday and then we'll get into some other issues. Adam, you know what? What I saw yesterday is every running back wants to retire and quit the NFL because they don't think they are fairly getting paid.

I have never seen just outrage like that. We saw Christian McCaffrey, Derrick Henry, Jonathan Taylor, Austin Eckler, all these guys go on Twitter just showing how upset they were that none of the franchise tag guys got extensions. Josh Jacobs didn't get extension. Barkley, Tony Pollard and really, I mean, this is, everyone saw this coming. This has been a culmination of probably the last five to seven years where the running back market has tanked. I don't know that it is ever going to recover teams unless you are Derrick Henry or Christian McCaffrey, that really tier one of guys that can be true game changers. I don't think we're going to see many guys getting the 12, 13, $15 million contracts.

And so that's where we are right now. I mean, take one. Barkley probably thought, Hey, I'm asking 13 million. That's not much. That's 3 million under what Christian McCaffrey is getting. I did a lot for this team last year. I don't think that's a huge ask and the giants are saying, yeah, that's way too much. We're not giving you 13 million buddies. So yeah, I just think we saw the running back market crater and now there's going to be fallout for that.

John breach, cbssports.com is joining us here in the big picture. Isn't this really the problem with the collective bargaining agreement and my, my bigger issue with that's not my, my bigger issue. The issue with that is that these guys are, especially if you're a first round pick, you're under contract for four years. The average lifespan of a running back in the NFL is like four years. So that contract, that's your deal. If the, if we were done with that first contract after two years and these guys, and maybe it wouldn't have worked in the case of Barkley because he got hurt. But if these guys were able to go to market in the, like as they were entering their prime in the middle of their prime, it would be different. But because these guys are going to the market basically when they're supposed to be in decline, why would any team, I don't blame teams for not wanting to pay running backs.

Yeah. And that is the problem. When you look at the collective bargaining agreement, Hey look, it's working out well for those positions. But like you said, with running backs, you're talking about these guys are taking 300 hits a year for four or five straight years. If they're a first round pick, it's five straight years before they're eligible, you know, before they're signing a new contract. And by then that's when the tread on the tires starts to wear off if you're running back. So I mean, I feel like the only way for running backs to get out of this and the only way for them to improve their value is to somehow say, Hey, can we be eligible for a contract negotiation after two years instead of the standard three years, you need to cut that first contract down. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine running backs rebounding from this.

Well, you know, I think it's exacerbated by the problem that I mean, this is I'm not trying to slam Daniel Jones here. But I mean, at best, he's a mid level starting quarterback in the NFL. I mean, this, I understand the Giants had a good year was probably a lot more because of Saquon Barkley than it was because of Daniel Jones, but he gets $40 million. But Barkley, who is probably a more valuable player to the Giants, at least this year, until his decline, it can't get a contract. Isn't isn't the quarterback? Like, the money that the quarterbacks get?

Isn't that part of the problem? Yeah, I mean, quarterbacks, to an extent, absolutely deserve their money. You know, no one's gonna say that Patrick Mahomes should get paid less so that the running back could get paid more. So I do think there are a lot of instances where that logic doesn't hold up.

But in the particular situation that you just made, it absolutely does hold up. Because we're talking Daniel Jones QB rating was 14 points better when Saquon Barkley was on the field last year. So it's not just, you know, I asked neck was mentioning, there's a lot these guys are offensive linemen because they have to pass protect, you know, they're getting the ball and catching the ball.

They're doing everything. And the Giants offense was better when Barkley was out there. And if I'm Brian Dabel, if I'm the coach, you know, he's either that final say here, the general manager does, but I'm thinking, man, Dale Jones just got a contract for 40 million per year. Why can't we just give him 38 million per year and use that extra 2 million to Saquon Barkley's demands? Because that's the guy that makes my offense go round. So yeah, it is a little weird, definitely in several situations that you have running backs that can't get paid. You know, in other instances, again, like the Chiefs, I understand why they're not paying a running back. Because Patrick Mahomes is that offense.

But a situation like New York, man, I am paying Saquon Barkley because he was such a huge part of that offense. And the truth is, and john breach and CBS is joining us here, is that there are so few running backs historically, we can go back, we can start the clock, maybe 15 or so years ago, there are so few running backs that stay at the top of their game for longer than four or five years. I mean, there aren't that many Lydanian Tomlinson's Adrian Peterson's Hey, we can put Derrick Henry in that list. I think Christian McCaffrey is a different type of running back because of how much he catches the ball out of the backfield.

We don't see 240 carries from from from him very often in his career. But there are just so few of those that I think it's, again, I think it's smart business on the part of NFL management to not invest a lot of money. I think the the bigger issue is logic draft Barkley number two. Yeah, well, I mean, the Giants have a Dave Gettleman huge problem. They took Daniel Jones six overall, that was definitely a reach, you know, Daniel Jones, probably a first round or probably should have been taken mid the late first round. Definitely not a six overall pick. And you shouldn't be using a top five pick on a running back. But I do think the other issue for running backs is that they've kind of hurt themselves. When you look at the last few huge running back contracts that have been handed out, they have not panned out. I mean, we're talking about Le'Veon Bell signing with the Jets.

God did absolutely nothing. Todd Gurley was just a legend with the Rams. Then he goes and signs that huge extension falls off the face of the earth. We saw what Deke Elliott did with the Cowboys just kind of started to fall apart after signing that $90 million extension. And then even David Johnson, he was kind of that Christian McCaffrey type before Christian McCaffrey got real big. He had one or two big years.

And then, like these other guys fell off the face of the earth. So you've had these deals that are worth $13 million a year or more. And you know, none of those guys panned out. And I think there's also some fear because teams don't want to waste that money on running backs. Yeah. And again, I don't blame them for not wanting to do that. What I guess the argument is that these guys are not replaceable. But history tells us that they're all replaceable, doesn't it?

Yeah. I mean, you look at this has been the example that's been thrown around the last 24 hours. You just look at the past the Super Bowl teams for the past 10 years and no one is backing up the brain struck to their running back. Most of these teams have interchangeable running backs. They're not paying them a lot of money. And so that's not the element of their offense where they're saying, hey, we need to spend a lot of money here. They're saying, let's do receivers. Let's do quarterback. Let's get two offensive linemen, pay them a lot.

And then we'll figure it out from there. The running back just isn't a position that teams think they need to pay to get to the Super Bowl anymore. You know, what's interesting is that Daniel Jones, who had a career high 15 touchdown passes last year in 16 starts, yes, 15 touchdown passes, less than one per start for a playoff team and got a $40 million contract.

He is probably most effective with his legs. So I wonder why they didn't treat him like a running back. Yeah, I give them say, sorry, Daniel, we're only giving you 10.1 million, which is the running back franchise tag. Yeah, it's amazing that they wouldn't pay Saquon Barkley that. And we're sitting here talking about Daniel Jones being one of the 10 highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL, which is just in the grand scheme of things, you know, that's the market rate.

I get it. But when you're talking about not paying Saquon and giving Dale Jones 40 million it does seem a little bit foolish. Final question for John Breach. Yes or no answer is all I really need. Will Saquon Barkley be behind, you know, I guess behind Daniel Jones on week one? Yes, I am so confident. I'm 100% confident in this.

If I could bet on it, I would bet on it. I do think he is going to skip a large chunk of training camp. But I just think that with the Le'Veon Bell situation, that is really that's what running backs look back on. They see that, hey, look, you skip a season that could throw your whole career off. And yeah, there is that threat of skipping one game, but you lose the paycheck. And look, there's only 17 regular season games. You do not want to miss one. So I do think Barkley will skip a chunk of training camp.

I do not think he will hold out and miss any games. John Breach, I appreciate your time, my friend CBS Sports pick six podcast part of the super friends. Talk to you soon. Enjoy whatever's left of your summer before training camp. Definitely. Thanks for having me, Adam. You got it, man.