The New York Giants fired head coach Brian Daboll on Monday morning, a decision that came after Daboll blew his fourth fourth-quarter lead of the season in a Sunday loss to the Chicago Bears. With Daboll gone, all attention now shifts to general manager Joe Schoen and whether he will keep his job when the season concludes.
As the organization weighs its next move, the Giants’ legendary running back Tiki Barber believes one specific decision should hold the most weight when evaluating Schoen’s performance heading into 2026.
Why Is Tiki Barber Pointing to One Signing as Joe Schoen’s Biggest Mistake?
During a Wednesday morning appearance on WFAN Sports Radio, Tiki Barber heavily criticized the Giants’ signing of Russell Wilson, framing it as a misguided move that would harm the team’s future.
Tiki says the Russell Wilson signing can be problematic when evaluating Joe Schoen at the end of the season: pic.twitter.com/orYVqEqCgG
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) November 12, 2025
“It was unnecessary,” Barber said. “It feels like when Jaxson Dart was drafted, they brought in two veterans just to slow his development. And who knows what happens if he doesn’t play at all this season? Russell Wilson becomes this supposed savior, even though anyone can see he’s not that guy. When he met with people here, they were like, ‘What? This was a miss,’ because it forced Dart to sit and there wasn’t a true merit-based competition for quarterback.”
Barber’s assessment of the situation is accurate, as Giants fans and others around the NFL questioned the decision to sign Wilson from the start. Anyone who has watched the veteran quarterback over the past three years, since he left Seattle, has seen a drastic decline in his play.
Therefore, Wilson’s benching after just three games in New York felt inevitable. In those contests, he completed a horrendous 59% of his passes (65-for-110) for 831 yards, three touchdowns, and three interceptions.
A massive Week 2 performance against the Dallas Cowboys inflated those numbers, as he completed 73% of his passes (30-for-41) for 450 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. The caveat, however, was that this came against one of the league’s worst defenses.
According to PFSN’s QB impact metric, Wilson has a score of 60.1, a D- grade. That score currently ranks below players like Justin Fields, Mac Jones, and Marcus Mariota. Both Mariota and Jones are backups who have seen significant playing time due to injuries, and Fields has not had a great year with the New York Jets.
Ultimately, signing Wilson was not just a single misstep but part of a broader list of questionable decisions by Schoen. Allowing Saquon Barkley to join the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles, where he is having one of the best running back seasons in NFL history, only adds to the scrutiny on the general manager.
Barber’s comments highlight why the Wilson move stands out as such a glaring mistake, as it forced the Giants to compromise Dart’s development while eliminating a true, merit-based competition for the starting quarterback job.
