The New York Giants likely won’t end up with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after defeating the Indianapolis Colts in Week 17, much to the dismay of their long-suffering fans.
But they will have a very high pick, and it should yield a player who could help change their fortunes relatively soon.
Almost all Giants fans are fixated on taking a quarterback in the first round, which is understandable, but former star Tiki Barber wants the organization to simply choose the best player available.
“Good players make great quarterbacks,” Barber said, via WFAN Sports Radio. “… You can win if you pick the right quarterback and he turns out to be Patrick Mahomes, but most of these dudes aren’t that.”
Tiki wants to see the Giants prioritize the best players in the draft instead of forcing the issue with a quarterback:@EvanandTikiWFAN pic.twitter.com/rhhZi4G0Q0
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) January 2, 2025
When New York won Super Bowl championships in the 2007 and 2011 seasons, they had Eli Manning, who was a very good but not an elite quarterback, and they won not with style or artistry but with old-fashioned elbow grease.
They got the job done by surpassing the sum of their parts and finding ways to win meaningful games when it mattered most, even if it was ugly at times.
Going back further, their 1986 championship team was quarterbacked by Phil Simms, a man who isn’t in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it had Lawrence Taylor patrolling the middle of the field on defense.
Barber seemed to hint that these Giants should go after Sam Darnold this offseason in free agency instead of getting hung up on having to draft a signal-caller, whether that be Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward or someone else.
NEXT: Tiki Barber Warns Giants Fans About “Obsessing” Over Drafting A QB
