Next-Team Odds for Saquon Barkley, Who Interested Packers at Trade Deadline

The Green Bay Packers are looking to upgrade their backfield. Could Saquon Barkley, who was not given the franchise tag by the Giants, be an option? Here are next-team odds for some top free agents.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – At last year’s NFL Trade deadline, Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reported the Green Bay Packers were among the teams interested in acquiring New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley.

Barkley was not traded and, now, he was not given the franchise tag at Tuesday’s deadline. Thus, one of the league’s premier running backs could be available when NFL free agency opens next week.

Could Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst be interested, especially if he lets AJ Dillon leave in free agency?

The Packers might prefer to go younger and cheaper by diving into a deep class of Day 2 running back prospects in next month’s NFL Draft. But a potential pairing of Aaron Jones and Barkley would be about as good as it gets.

“There’s nothing he can’t do,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before last year’s matchup. “I think we saw that up close and personal a year ago. Shoot, he took a wildcat run like 40 yards. He caught a shallow cross out of the backfield for like 40 yards. He broke off a few runs, as well.

“He’s an explosive guy. You’ve got to have multiple hats when you go to tackle him. You’ve got to gang tackle him because he can make you miss, he’s explosive, he can stick his foot in the ground. Obviously, he’s great at breaking tackles. There’s a couple clips that we showed the squad in terms of him being bottled up and finding a way out of it. So, whether it’s the run game, the pass game, whether he’s at wildcat, at quarterback, he’s a guy that you absolutely need to contain.”

A first-round pick in 2018, Barkley has three seasons of 1,000 rushing yards and just missed last year, when he wound up with 962 yards in 14 games. He caught 41 passes last year, as well. Other than 2020, when he missed most of the season with a torn ACL, he’s had more than 40 catches every season.

“Saquon can do anything he wants on the football field,” former linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti said. “He’s a phenomenal football player and a very good athlete. Everything he’s asked to do, he can do, and he can do it at a very high level.”

Barkley has played three games against the Packers. He’s gone over 100 total yards in all three games.

Bet Online features next-team odds for several top free agents. The Packers are +2500 to land Barkley. Those are the 10th-shortest odds. The Houston Texans (+200), Dallas Cowboys (+300) and Philadelphia Eagles (+400) are the favorites, and the Chicago Bears (+1600) and Minnesota Vikings (+2000) have shorter odds, as well.

Here are more NFL player odds from Bet Online and DraftKings (when available). An important note: The Bet Online odds are next team if the player changes teams; the DraftKings odds are first snap, even if on the same team. Thus, the rather large discrepancies for some players.

RB Josh Jacobs, Raiders: +1000 at Bet Online; +2500 at DraftKings

RB Derrick Henry, Titans: +1400 at Bet Online; +1500 at DraftKings

RB Austin Ekeler, Chargers: +2200 at Bet Online

RB Alvin Kamara, Saints: +2500 at Bet Online

RB Tony Pollard, Cowboys: +2500 at Bet Online

RB Saquon Barkley, Giants: +2500 at Bet Online; +4000 at DraftKings

WR Stefon Diggs, Bills: +500 at Bet Online; +5000 at DraftKings

WR Davante Adams, Raiders: +4000 at Bet Online

DE Khalil Mack, Chargers: +1000 at Bet Online

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