It’s certainly no secret that former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber never adequately reconciled with the team prior to his retirement (especially considering they won a Super Bowl the year after he retired). Needless to say, he didn’t help his case by stating that Washington Redskins’ Kirk Cousins is the best quarterback in the NFC East over both the Giants’ Eli Manning and the Cowboys’ Tony Romo.
“I think it has to be Kirk. It has to be,” CBS Sports Radio host Tiki Barber told 106.7 The Fan’s Chad Dukes. “None of the guys from the Eagles excite me. Eli and Tony are old, and Kirk just feels like he took the right steps.”
“We were talking early about how Tom Coughlin reinvented himself. Kirk, who is only 24 years old, reinvented who he was. There’s a lot to be excited about with him, especially if he keeps continuity with his coordinators and just keeps taking the small steps forward. You don’t need to take leaps and bounds but just take small steps forward. Especially if you have talent around you, which the Washington Redskins do.”
Well, it’s certainly interesting that Barber left out that Manning, a two-time Super Bowl champion and four-time Pro Bowler, was the NFC co-leader in touchdown passes in 2015 and is easily one of the best quarterbacks in Giants history. By the same token, Tony Romo missed virtually the entirety of last season with injuries but in 2014 led the Cowboys to a 12-4 record while leading the league in passer rating.
While Manning, 35, and Romo, 36, are certainly well-tested veterans, Cousins (who is not 24, but is in fact 27) is well below both of these quarterbacks who have proven that they still have the capability to perform at high levels. And given how little Cousins has accomplished up to this point, it’s hard to understand why Barber would even make such a statement when weighed against the performance of both Manning and Romo, both of whom had made Pro Bowls by the time they were 27.
Cousins has shown his limitations as a quarterback, and just how much of this Barber believes remains to be seen. It’s apparent that he still does not appear able to acknowledge his former teammate and quarterback in regards to what they’ve managed to accomplish without him.
