As has been the trend every single day all week in camp – Ahmad Bradshaw has been taking the majority of snaps with the first team yet again today.
Gregg Rosenthal of PFT asks… why?
"Why has Ahmad Bradshaw received the first snap with the first team every day at Giants camp?Jacobs has received first-team reps as well, but Bradshaw has taken the majority of snaps with the starters. We don’t want to overreact to training camp practices, but this is a change to the natural order of things in New York. The Giants are still trying to figure out what exactly happened to Jacobs last year.“I don’t know. We don’t know,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “He wasn’t as effective, so I’m going to say it’s his knee. That’s the only way I can try to begin to explain it, but with anything it’s never just one thing.”Tom Coughlin said he wanted to see more confidence in Jacobs, presumably in the way he tests his knee. Bradshaw, who underwent more surgery this offseason, reportedly has looked terrific in practices.The Giants’ running game can only get better this year, but it may take using Jacobs in a different role to do so."
Jacobs injured his knee in the very first game against the Redskins, and failed to show an edge in his running thereafter. I’ve been re-watching the 2009 season over the past week and it’s vividly clear he lost a step or two, and Bradshaw at times was clearly the better option. It was of course apparent to everyone at the time- and it should be especially clear to Gilbride and Coughlin at this point. Perhaps they’re playing it down when it comes to Jacobs knee, but it’s no wonder why Bradshaw is replacing him with first team thus far. Look at what he did to deserve the opportunity last year.
Bradshaw is coming off a breakout season where he suffered his own injuries, had his own off season surgeries, and has reportedly bounced back to 100% very quickly. He’s been cutting, running hard – and by all appearances has pick up right up where he left off last year. Bradshaw had 777 yards and 7 touchdowns over 163 attempts which equals out to 4.8 yards per carry. He also added 207 yards from 21 receptions – basically picking up a first down every time he caught the ball. Bradshaw had 449 snaps total. When compared to Jacobs’ 3.7 yards per carry and 5 touchdowns with 519 total snaps – there’s no question why Bradshaw would be getting the bulk of the snaps in camp. The Giants are trying to reignite the running game in 2010 and get the most production possible from their featured back this season. Bradshaw is clearly ready to step into that role — it looks like the Giants front office thinks so too.
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