As the franchise’s all-time leading rusher, Tiki Barber is a shoo-in for this list. Coming to New York as a second-round draft pick from Virginia in 1997, Barber first showcased his return skills to make himself noticed. By 2000, Tiki had become the team’s permanent starting back and the Giants made it all the way to Super Bowl XXXV behind Barber’s 1,725 total yards, 1,006 of which were rushing.
In 2004, Barber’s Giants career was made when he broke Rodney Hampton’s all-time franchise rushing record and Joe Morris’ single-season franchise rushing record in the same game, a season-finale victory against the Dallas Cowboys in which Barber scored the game-winning touchdown.
In the Giants’ division-winning season in 2005, Barber would break his own single-season rushing record with a career-best 1,860 rushing yards and 2,390 total yards, all the while scoring 11 touchdowns.
After retiring in 2006, Barber’s career totaled 15,639 total yards and 67 total touchdowns. He is still the team’s all-time leader in rush attempts and rushing yards with 2,217 and 10,449 respectively. For all his accomplishments, the Giants honored Barber with a spot in the team’s Ring of Honor.
Though he may have cast a bad shadow on his Giants career after some off-the-field incidents between him and the team after his retirement, Barber’s stats speak for themselves, so much so that it would be unjustifiable to keep him off one of the top spots on this list.