I am the first to admit that I was annoyed by Tiki Barber the second I saw him interviewed after announcing his retirement and repeatedly saying he felt he could be a “disseminator of news”. He said “disseminator of news” around 5 times in 2 minutes and it just sounded contrived. 

My annoyance is obviously nothing compared to the resentment that Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning and the rest of the Giants must have felt when Tiki bashed them early in the season.  The Giants’ tremendous turnaround and impressive playoff run, led by Coughlin and El,i makes Tiki look even sillier.

Tiki Barber was an excellent running back and quality receiver out of the backfield.  However, Ahmad Bradshaw has provided much of what Tiki Barber provided.  We re-ran AccuScore Super Bowl simulations to see if the Giants would have been better off (statistically) with Tiki Barber still playing.

The total rushing statistics are marginally better with Tiki (6 more yards, 0.2 more ypc) and Tiki gets more receiving yards than the combo of Jacobs and Bradshaw.  However, the winning percentage for simulations where Tiki Barber plays actually declined slightly from 25% to 24%.

While it is good from a fantasy perspective that a RB gets 3.5+ receptions per game, the Giants are slightly worse with Tiki because the passing game is more productive with Eli looking downfield more to Burress, Toomer, and Steve Smith than dumping the ball off for an easy short completion to Tiki Barber.  It is better for the Giants to complete 55% of pass attempts that travel 10+ yards in the air than it is to complete 85% of the 2 yard dump-offs to Tiki.

Besides being statistically better off without Tiki, the Giants are financially better off. According to USA Today’s Salaries Databases the Giants’ Cap Value in 2006 with Barber and Jacobs is more than 9 times as high as the 2007 figure for Jacobs and Bradshaw.  So the Giants saved millions of dollars and got more production – that’s a very good ROI.

Finally, there’s the motivation that Tiki Barber’s sudden retirement and early season critique provided Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning and the rest of the Giants.  Tom Coughlin softened his personality and became a better communicator to the team, and Eli Manning stepped up when the team needed him most.  Tiki Barber was a great player, but this looks like a classic case of addition by subtraction.