The New York Football Giants have made their Hard Knocks debut the past two weeks and it’s truly incredible

Through just two episodes of HBO’s latest Hard Knocks, we have gotten a deeper look into the New York Giants’ offseason than ever. From free agency to the Combine to how the Brian Burns trade went down, this season’s suffered no lack of content.

Typically, Hard Knocks gives us a look at an NFL team’s training camp and parts of the preseason. However, after nearly 20 years this started getting stale, as you can only watch the same concept with slightly different variations over and over again before getting bored. Knowing this, the showrunners revamped it: last season the Dolphins’ Hard Knocks was in the middle of the season, after their Week 10 bye. This followed the Jets’ preseason show, which offered new perspectives into coaching, injury management, the highs and lows of a season and even more insight into players’ personal lives. 

With change in mind, HBO decided to turn on the stove, throw a pan on and cook with the purest form of fish grease. Thus, Hard Knocks: Offseason With the New York Giants was born, and just two episodes in I’m hooked. 

Personally, I’m not a big TV guy. While I’ve indulged Hard Knocks in the past, it’s not something that’s really stuck with me, mostly because of the repetitive nature mentioned before. Even when it comes to shows in general, I have a hard time getting hooked – sure, the occasional Breaking Bad or Abbott Elementary will draw my attention, but seldom will I have the motivation to start and finish a series. Maybe it’s my low attention span as a 21-year-old, or how often I find myself consuming other forms of media; regardless, this rendition of Hard Knocks has had me glued to my couch the last two Tuesdays, not moving until the episode is done. Being a Giants fan definitely plays a part in this, but I truly feel I’d still be as glued if it were a different team. 

The offseason shenanigans of an NFL team are always reported on by guys like Adam Schefter or Ian Rappoport, but we almost never see how signings, trades or draft picks actually go down. A team like the Giants was perfect for the show: from losing Saquon Barkley and Xavier McKinney – two cornerstone players on both sides of the ball – to drafting Malik Nabers and trading for Burns, the Giants have been extremely busy. While the show hasn’t covered everything yet, we’ve gotten a good glimpse at what Joe Schoen has been up to this summer. 

What have we learned? 

The biggest reason I’ve been so hooked so far has been the amount of content covered through just two 40-minute episodes. The biggest part of the show so far has been Barkley’s free agency. It hasn’t been the most talked-about subject, but going into the show EVERYONE wanted to hear all of the tea on how Barkley’s exit went down. 

Barkley’s offseason has been the definition of a roller coaster. When he initially signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants’ biggest rival, Big Blue fans were irate. However, once Barkley took to Twitter to say that Schoen never gave him an offer to return, things cooled down a bit. Sure, some fans unnecessarily hated Barkley for his decision to join the Eagles, but if the Giants never made him an offer, who cares? 

Well . . .

There’s still plenty of time in the show until we get to Barkley’s decision to leave, but from the snippets we have gotten it’s not looking good for Saquon. For starters, Barkley saying the Giants never gave him an offer has already been proven to be a lie, as a preview clip at the end of Episode 2 for Episode 3 features Schoen saying he offered Barkley a three-year, $12.5 million average annual salary with $25 million guaranteed — almost identical to what he signed with the Eagles, except they guaranteed $1 million more. 

So with this known, it’s a bit more understandable to see the anger Giants fans have toward Barkley. Not only did he lie about Schoen not giving him an offer, he accepted an identical deal to what the Giants offered to go to their biggest rival. However, it seems that just like a large portion of NFL fans, Giants fans are forgetting the human side of this. Think about this from Barkley’s perspective. 

He was drafted second overall back in 2018. During the six years he spent with the Giants, the front office did little to nothing to actually build around him. Sure, there were efforts, but pure incompetency from former general manager Dave Gettleman ruined any chances the Giants had of building an actual playoff team around Barkley. 

You spend five years playing behind what is consistently a bottom-three offensive line, with poor quarterback play outside of one season and virually no success outside of that one season. Then, following that singular successful year, you are not offered a real contract and watch your barely-above-average quarterback get a $160 million deal. Why on earth would you want to return? Not to mention the following season, the team goes back to being bad while you waste another year of your prime behind a garbage offensive line. Your front office has proven they’re not loyal to you, and you’re offered two contracts: one to return and continue playing behind a poor offense on a below-average team; the other to join what could be a Super Bowl contender, playing behind arguably the best offensive line in the league while making the same amount of money. Realistically, what offer are you are going to accept? 

Not to mention Barkley is from Pennsylvania, so he gets all of those benefits and gets to play in his home state. There was genuinely no real reason for Barkley to stay in New York, yet all I see are Giants fans trashing him for his decision. I understand being angry, initially, but football is a business, and Barkley made the right move for his career. 

Now, that’s a lot for just one section of the show, but it was arguably the biggest part of the Giants offseason and one of the more dramatic parts of the NFL offseason in general. As for other things we have learned, it actually gets a little funny. By far my favorite part of the show thus far was the conversation between Schoen and Panthers GM Dan Morgan at the Senior Bowl regarding Burns. Morgan made it known the star pass rusher was available. However, what made this conversation so funny was how poor of a negotiating job Morgan did. Here, watch the clip:

“Hey, do you want to overpay for our star player?” 

“No?” 

“Okay, how about a little less?”

“No?”

“Okay. How about even less?” 

Knowing how the Burns trade went down – the Giants ended up trading a second- and fifth-round pick for the Pro Bowler – Morgan made an absolute fool of himself. I’m no expert on negotiating, I’m a damn sportswriter, but making it very clear that you are willing to take SIGNIFICANTLY less than your original asking price is just bad business. 

My dad helped open my eyes to just how bad of a move this Morgan’s was with an analogy. Say someone selling a car is asking for $5,000, but during negotiations they say they’re willing to take $3,500. Now the new starting point, price-wise, is $3,500, and the door has been opened to take even less. This is exactly what happened with Burns, and it’s hilarious to see an opposing general manager get walked over like Schoen did  Morgan. 

We’ll have to wait and see how the trade went down until what seems like next episode based on previews, but Panthers fans have a real reason to be pretty pissed off at Morgan for what seems like true incompetency. 

What else could be covered? 

Obviously we have the rest of Barkley’s free agency, and how the Giants handled it. We’ve gotten plenty of looks, but the final chapter of this story has yet to be shown, and reactions from the fanbase will surely be interesting to see. We also have the departure of Xavier McKinney, who was mentioned a couple times last episode. McKinney has been a staple of the Giants defense since being drafted back in 2020, a vocal leader and one of the best coverage safeties in the entire NFL, if not the best. Letting him walk was a decision I did not agree with, so I’m curious to see why Schoen went down that route. 

I’m also excited to see the bigger picture regarding free agency. We never get a full look at negotiations, meetings, agent talk, etc. The Giants may have lost Barkley and McKinney, but they kept busy signing guys like Jon Runyan and Jermaine Eluemunor to revamp the offensive line. Both expressed excitement becoming a part of the organization, so I’m interested to see if this played a role in them joining the team. 

Another aspect that could cause some controversy is the NFL Draft. It’s no secret Schoen was interested in moving up to potentially draft a quarterback, and last episode we saw how he tried to spark up trade talks with the Patriots. Once we get to the draft, we can see just how dedicated the Giants were to moving up. There’ve been reports of them allegedly offering multiple first-round picks to move up to New England’s pick, third overall, and it seems like Hard Knocks could confirm if these reports were true or not. If they were, it could actually play a role in the potential revival of Daniel Jones’ career. Knowing the team had legitimate interest in replacing their QB could spark a fire under him. He knows if he underperforms this season he’s gone, but seeing that the front office may have wanted him gone sooner than later could be what he needs to get his shit together. 

Final thoughts

I truly believe this is the best rendition of Hard Knocks we’ve seen thus far. Sure, I may have bias, but this is stuff we have genuinely never seen. NFL teams post training-camp clips and interviews all the time, and while the inside look that brought was nice, it got repetitive. NFL offseasons are different for every team: some are more aggressive in pursuing a championship; others are looking to rebuild. And then there’s the Giants, in the middle, trying to test the waters of how good they can truly be.

Who knows if the offseason edition will be brought back every year, but I certainly hope so. I’m entering my fourth season covering the Giants, my first with The Strickland, and this show has provided me more insight than anything I’ve seen before on the field. It’s truly incredible. Some aspects feel scripted, and there are moments you can tell guys like Schoen and Brian Daboll are saying things specifically for the camera, but for the sake of integrity and privacy they kind of have to. 

I may have sounded anti-Giants with my rant on Barkley, but I promise that’s not the case. The lack of empathy in the NFL community has been a plague for decades and it’s such a frustrating thing to see. If you want to be angry about Barkley for lying about the Giants not giving him an offer, go for it, but it was hard to ever see him returning given everything I brought up before. Episode 3 releases next Tuesday, and despite the fact that I’ll be on vacation I know I’ll be back to the television, eyes glued to the screen. Hopefully the next episode dives more into Barkley’s free-agency fiasco and offers a deeper look at McKinney, as well.