If Giants draft Dwayne Haskins, they will be in the Super Bowl soon, Saquon Barkley's dad says
Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins in the Big Ten Championship against Northwestern on Dec. 1, 2018, in Indianapolis. Credit: AP/Darron Cummings
Saquon Barkley’s father thinks the Giants will be in the Super Bowl soon, and he knows who he wants the quarterback to be when they get there.
“Two or three years, if not next year,” Alibay Barkley told Newsday on Wednesday. “It all depends on if they get Haskins.”
Dwayne Haskins, that is, the quarterback from Ohio State who many believe could be selected by the Giants in the first round of the upcoming draft. As it seems more and more likely that Eli Manning will return to the team for the 2019 season, the Giants are ramping up their efforts to find his replacement in earnest. In recent years they have drafted quarterbacks in later rounds, but this year they may invest in the position with an eye toward a looming transition at the most vital and expensive position on the field.
And that would be fine with Saquon’s dad, who was trailing his son around Radio Row. It wasn’t necessarily a criticism of Manning, who turned 38 earlier this month. It was more a nod to the Giants’ reality . . . and most likely an inadvertent reflection of their internal thinking.
“Eli can show him the ropes,” the elder Barkley said of the hypothetical selection of Haskins and then having him sit behind Manning for a season. So by that thinking, Alibay Barkley’s suggestion that the Giants could be in next year’s Super Bowl means they might get there with Manning at quarterback. But he also said that if Manning “messes up” in 2019, Haskins could “step right in.”
Saquon Barkley, meanwhile, is at his first Super Bowl this week and has been making the media rounds and pitching products and waiting for Saturday night when he may be named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year. Like his father, he’s aiming for his next visit to the big game to be made in a Giants uniform rather than in a red Old Spice deodorant T-shirt while signing autographs for the company.
“Hopefully next year,” the running back said of his desire to be a participant in the Super Bowl. “I’d rather it be sooner than later. That’s the goal and I feel like that’s the way things are going.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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