10 players who will be wildly overpaid in 2023 NFL Free Agency

9. Saquon Barkley, RB, New York Giants

It was really hard to include Saquon Barkley on this list. When healthy, I think he’s one of the biggest difference makers in the league, but that’s obviously the big asterisk here, isnt it?

After the Giants took Saquon with the second pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, he gave them a very quick and impressive return on investment with over 2,000 yards from scrimmage and 15 touchdowns in his first NFL season. From that point on, it was uphill trudging for Barkley who would miss 24 games over the next three seasons.

He was finally healthy for most of the 2022 season in New York and at the age of 26 looks poised to cash in big in free agency if the New York Giants let him get there. The big caveat here is that the Giants have to let Barkley get to the market, or perhaps work out a sign and trade if they franchise tag him.

Although the Giants have plenty of cap space, Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen have not historically shown they are prone to investing a ton in the running back position. In fact, the entire NFL right now is really on a kick of not investing in that position group. Perhaps Le’Veon Bell’s historically bad deal signed just a handful of years ago has scared folks away…

Barkley’s current market value of just over $12 million per season seems like a bargain but what we’re looking at here in terms of being “overpaid” is guaranteed money a team is willing to give Barkley. If you put a ton of guaranteed money down at the running back position, you could be setting yourself up for massive disappointment.

It just rarely works out in today’s NFL to pay running backs a ton of cash, although there are some exceptions.