Tiki Barber Thinks Giants Should Move On from Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley

Former New York Giants running back turned media personality Tiki Barber has never been shy in expressing his opinions about his former team.

And in his latest round of analysis, Barber, part of WFAN's "Tiki and Tierney" program, delivered a strongly worded argument that the Giants should move on from quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley.

Of Barkley, whom Barber believes the Giants should trade, he said:

The reason I think they should try to trade Saquon is because if you’re going to zero to get your cap in order, just do it. Don’t try to mitigate the pain by keeping a popular player here. If you’re resetting, it’s a new regime, new philosophy…go all in. if you’re doing this and it’s gonna be painful, you’ve got to just go all in.

As for Jones, one of two players on whom the Giants must decide by May 2 whether to exercise the option year of his contract (defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence is the other), Barber said the following:

If he’s not gonna be a top-10 quarterback, then why are you worried about figuring him out and trying to get a little bit above average quarterback? He’s never gonna be a top 10--maybe he’s 15.

Do you trust him to be like Eli [Manning] was? You trusted Eli because even if he was average because if you got in a critical situation, he was showing up. You could count on that from Eli. Can you count on that from Daniel Jones?

I don’t want to get caught with the same season of ‘Daniel Jones looks pretty good…he just needs something to take him over the top,’” Jones said. “Then you’re stuck without an answer…I think this is a reset season for the Giants…if you’re gonna strip it down, take the pain right now.

There's no disputing that after a 4-13 season that was, in part, wrecked by a ridiculously high amount of injuries, the Giants have had to scrap the plans laid last year and start over.

Already new general manager Joe Schoen has revamped the offensive line, a unit that's been a chronic problem on the team for the last several years.

He's also in the process of giving the tight ends room a complete refresh after cutting Kyle Rudolph and Kaden Smith and letting Evan Engram leave via free agency.

He's also moved on from two of last year's top safeties on the team, Jabrill Peppers, who left via free agency, and Logan Ryan, whose contract was terminated after it was decided that Ryan's skill set wasn't necessarily a fit for what new defensive coordinator Wink Martindale hopes to run.

While many of those signs suggest a complete rebuild is in order, Schoen has approached fixing the roster as more of a renovation process that will revolve around key players already in place.

Left tackle Andrew Thomas, safety Xavier McKinney, receivers Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney, and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari are among the holdovers from the previous regime kept on as part of the new foundation being built.

“I’m not a big tear-it-up-rebuild guy," Schoen said during his introductory press conference in January. "I think you can build a roster where you can compete today and build for tomorrow."

That statement was eerily similar to something Dave Gettleman, Schoen's predecessor, said March 2019: “You can win while you build a roster,” Gettleman said in March 2019.

The problem is that the plan has to consist of hitting on one's draft class and managing free agency wisely, two things that didn't quite pan out for the Giants under Gettleman. (Their 2018 draft class is down to one member, Barkley, and their free-agency spending spree in 2021 has left them in cap hell for this year.)

While it's easy to understand where Barber is coming from regarding both Jones and Barkley, two players who are still question marks due to different circumstances, Barber's opinions fall a little short of the mark.

With Jones, whom team co-owner John Mara acknowledged has lacked consistent support in his pro career as far as an offensive line, scheme, or coaching, the Giants need to figure out if he can be a quarterback they can live with going forward.

The same can be said of Barkley, who has had the same issues as Jones (scheme changes and offensive line) and has had to deal with injuries as he has tried to build on an otherwise impressive rookie campaign.

Jones and Barkley might prove not to be the best fits for the Giants moving forward, but there's only one way this team is going to find out, and that's by trying to create a better environment than what they've given both players in the past.

While it's impossible (and unrealistic) to create the perfect environment, certainly creating a scheme that optimizes what each man--not just Jones and Barkley but everyone on the roster--does well would be a big step in the right direction.

This is the approach Schoen and Daboll are taking regarding the roster. They have determined there is enough of a foundation where the entire structure doesn't need to be ripped down. And they both believe that some of the other "pieces" that they've retained--inside linebacker Blake Martinez and receiver Sterling Shepard come to mind--can help get the new "house" back in order.

Indeed, the quarterback's identity and, to a degree, the running back are big components. According to a growing number of draft analysts, this year’s quarterback class isn’t exactly bursting at the seams with a batch of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allens, Joe Burrows, and Justin Herberts.

That and the desire to give Jones a better supporting cast up front are likely behind the Giants’ decision to stick with the former Duke signal thrower, who is unlikely to have his option year exercised.

As for Barkley, who did get his option year picked up although he was coming off a significant knee injury, the Giants appear willing to exhaust every possible avenue to determine whether Barkley is the next Adrian Peterson or Blair Thomas.

There’s no harm in the Giants’ seeking these answers, as the odds of them going from “worst to first” given the new coaching staff and all the holes on the roster that still need to be filled likely mean the Giants are still at least another year away from making any kind of real noise in the postseason.

And in perhaps realizing that, even if they did want to move on from Jones and/or Barkley, they’d probably get little to nothing in return, why not see if both players can finally fulfill the expectations the team had for them when they devoted ultra-premium draft capital to select them?

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