Saquon Barkley is a very good football player, and the Giants do not have nearly enough of those. In fact, they have three men on the roster with the talent to be the best in the world at what they do.

Barkley is one. Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas are the others.

So it would make no sense for Barkley, who will only be 26 on opening day in September, to go spend the rest of his prime with someone else. He’s the most talented playmaker on the team, Daniel Jones included, and yet while conducting his season autopsy Monday general manager Joe Schoen was more definitive in his desire and intent to bring back his quarterback.

The GM effectively booked Jones for a return trip in first class by saying that “we’re happy Daniel’s going to be here,” and by stating that the Giants’ goal is “to build a team around him where he can lead us to win a Super Bowl.”

It makes sense, too. Jones has earned a new nine-figure contract the hard way, and he deserves whatever money he can make in free agency. He plays a position far more critical to a team’s success than a running back, and that’s just the way it goes.

But that doesn’t mean Barkley shouldn’t land his own multiyear deal with a salary that won’t equal even half of Jones’ eventual wage. And yet when asked about re-upping one of the Giants’ two all-NFC players — with Lawrence, as voted by the Professional Football Writers of America — Schoen did a tap dance he didn’t do when the subject turned to Mr. Jones.

Schoen started talking about how the 2022 Giants were a special team, and how he’d like everyone back, and how there’s a business side to consider, and how there are salary cap rules he must follow, and how he loved getting to know Barkley … before finally getting around to saying, “He’s a guy we’d like to have back.” Schoen then pivoted quickly to upcoming meetings and the need to take a step back and remove all emotion from the roster and cap evaluations to come.

“We would like to have Saquon back,” he repeated before adding, “if it works out.”

It needs to work out. The Giants got a lot of bang for their marketing buck with their “Our Way” campaign, built around the advertised franchise bedrocks of intelligence, toughness, dependability and selflessness.

If Barkley doesn’t embody those traits, who the hell does?

The guy just negotiated against himself — on camera — when saying he had no interest in establishing a fresh salary scale for running backs, and when reminding everyone that injuries wrecked the middle of his five-year Giants career, a fact, he conceded, that “doesn’t help” his cause. Barkley called himself “realistic” before cutting himself some slack on his career-high 1,312 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns this year.

“I think I was able to show the caliber of player I am,” he said. “That was my goal this year. I was able to accomplish that.”

That’s Barkley being accountable, even if it cost him some money and ruined his agent’s day.

During the bye week, the Giants tried to reach a deal with their pending free agent and made a bid that was on the low side of fair. It’s believed that offer came in around three to four years at $12 million-$12.5 million a pop, and Barkley decided he was worth more than that.

“We were off on the value,” Schoen said.

“We weren’t really that close.”

Now is the time for the Giants and Barkley to get close and renew their vows. The running back returned to his Pro Bowl form, proved he could stay healthy for an entire season, and finished as one of three NFL players to lead his team in rushing yards and receptions.

Barkley is not going to top Christian McCaffrey’s league-leading positional average wage of $16 million, and that’s OK by him. But the Giants should offer him $14 million per and try to close this thing out.

For an organization that cares about its image and markets its new culture, Barkley is a perfect fit. He will never, ever embarrass the franchise. Like Eli Manning before him, Barkley desperately wants to be a Giant for life. He studies the game’s history like a precious few and understands what it would mean to his legacy to spend his entire career in big-city blue.

Of course, in the modern NFL, no executive is terribly eager to pay a running back top dollar. Only Barkley isn’t defined merely by his position. He is an all-around playmaker and all-world role model, and without question his consistent public support of his friend Jones helped the quarterback survive the dark times and find the light.

No, Barkley doesn’t deserve a franchise tag and a one-year payout of $10.1 million. He will be angry and hurt if it goes down like that, one friend of his confirmed.

But the Giants shouldn’t let it get to that, not when Saquon Barkley represents the best of everything this storied franchise says it’s about. He is the Frank Gifford of his time, and it’s time for him to get paid.