Tiki Barber Concerned Giants QB Daniel Jones May Not Be Ready to Start Season

Jones, however, has continued to vow he will be ready for the season.

Oct 8, 2023; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) attempts a pass against the Miami Dolphins during the first half at Hard Rock Stadium. / Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Retired New York Giants running back Tiki Barber recently expressed concern about quarterback Daniel Jones and if he’d be ready for Week 1 of the 2024 season after missing most of last year with a torn ACL.  

The former Giant turned sports talk show host for WFAN, expressed these sentiments on Thursday during his daily show with co-host Evan Roberts.

“I’m still worried that Daniel Jones might not be ready for the start of the regular season,” Barber said.  “Joe Schoen said it out loud [on Hard Knocks]. ‘What if our quarterback isn’t ready for the start of the season?’”

Before going any further, it’s hard to imagine that Barber wasn’t aware that the comments made by Schoen on the Hard Knocks series were made in late February and that several months have passed with Jones having made progress in his rehab. 

That said, Barber admitted that he’s seen Jones more recently and that the quarterback “looked great.” 

 “Big, strong, strapping, running around, always working out. He looked good. But looking good in no pads is different than being on a football field and being aggressively pursued by defenders.”

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Jones, who was cleared to do individual drills and seven-on-seven drills this spring, has vowed he will be ready to go for the start of training camp, which, assuming he has no setbacks, should put him on track to be ready for Week 1 of the regular season.

It’s unknown at this time if the Giants plan to let Jones play in any of the team’s three preseason games. It’s also not known if they plan to scale back the number of designed quarterback runs they call in a game, at least on the onset of Jones’s return.

While Barber is entitled to an opinion–and he didn’t really go into why he believes Jones won’t be ready as his citing of looking good in no pads was different than looking good in pads doesn’t carry much weight since all players will be exposed to wearing pads after the first week of training camp is in the books–he can’t seem to shake the negative feeling he has. 

“I hope he’s ready,” he said. “But in my mind, I can’t help but think that he might not be.”

If Barber’s intuition proves correct, the Giants are expected to turn to former Seattle backup Drew Lock to carry the offense until Jones is ready to play.

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