By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

Little noise has been created for the other New York team. The New York Giants swayed from resigning Plaxico Burress, and stuck to their core structure as a team overall. Tom Coughlin’s always been an in-house kind of guy. Teaching and training through his proper system and instilling his overall team concept. It’s worked in the past for Jacksonville’s success, and obviously in New York where they have won a Super Bowl.

No big signings have come from the New York Giants. Just a solid draft and retaining some key free agents. Their bright nucleus of wide receivers remain intact, and will likely blossom even further this season. The area in which many are surprised a move wasn’t made would have to be at running back.

Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw have had their fair share of ups and downs as Giants. Jacobs went from a breakout back to bust in a quick time span. Last year though, with the Giants relegating his carries he showed proper production as the second option back. Bursting through tacklers late in games and tacking on touchdowns gave Jacobs fantasy value once again. We all knew Jacobs would be back in 2011, it was who he would be paired with that was the question.

Ahmad Bradshaw had an out the gate type of 2010 season. Starting off so well that he supplanted Jacobs as feature back with ease. The grind of carries can typically catch up to a back in the latter parts of the year. For Bradshaw he hit a wall basically at the midpoint of the year. His value and stock dropped dramatically as he only produced one game over a hundred yards. What made matters worse was the fact that he fumbled the ball at a high rate.

As Bradshaw became less dependable that was when Brandon Jacobs seemed to resurrect. He had a three game tear weeks twelve through fourteen in which he averaged nearly one hundred yards a game. Even when he wasn’t having monster games from a yardage standpoint, he was the second half factor back for the Giants. Garnering the key carries, mostly because Tom Coughlin was likely afraid of Bradshaw coughing up the football.

So with this duo back together in 2011, fantasy owners have to be juggling to decide who will do what. One thing that can’t be taken away from either is they will produce touchdowns. The Giants run the football with the best of any NFL team. Another great plus is how the Giants spread the football around through the air. With all of their great targets it opens up the running lanes and keeps defenses on their heels. While Jacobs will burst through tacklers, Bradshaw has the long gainer ability that he is well known for.

We are worried that Ahmad Bradshaw may have had an above average season last year. He just didn’t have the feature back skills of a top tier back the second half of last season. He’ll likely slip in drafts a tad, but is a viable bottom tier number two fantasy starter, and great third option. Jacobs on the other hand will offset his five to seven points average of rushing yards, with a solid scatter of single or two touchdown games. His a quiet fantasy force that will give you close to ten points a game.

Jacobs isn’t a back that you would want to count on, but he’ll end up being one of those backs you drafted late that sneaks up your roster depth chart as a starter.

By Zack Cimini
notjustagame23@gmail.com

Fantasy owners we already leery on where to take Brandon Jacobs after his dismal season a year ago. Yet he allegedly was healthy and ready to bounce back into his 2008 form. It didn’t take long for Tom Coughlin and the world to see that Jacobs can not be an every down back. Commend Tom Coughlin for pulling the plug early and shifting the weight of carries to Ahmad Bradshaw. Bradshaw’s done a solid job gaining yardage for fantasy owners, but when it comes to touchdowns it’s one sided.

Over the last four games Jacobs has scored five touchdowns and is averaging a little over twelve fantasy points a game. His doing all of this while only garnering around eight carries a game. That tells you he and the Giants are making the most of his plays on the field. Now Jacobs is not taking too large of a load that he can’t handle. He is coming in and being that big bruising back we’ve come to expect, instead of stutter stepping and being hesitant.

Ahmad Bradshaw has done nothing but overachieve for fantasy owners. Basically having an equivocal year statistically to what he accomplished a year ago. As the season wears on a red flag has to start to be waved by the Giants and fantasy owners. For the Giants they want to protect Bradshaw from overexerting himself. They’ll need him to perform the way he is now deep into the season and playoffs.

He is not a back that’s had full time carries before in his career. Where that jumps out more than anywhere is his fumbling issues. Bradshaw already has four lost fumbles on the year. Talk about Tiki Barber all over again. He is fumbling the ball once every thirty three carries. Coughlin will not stand for that.

If it were not for Jacobs fumbling the ball in the second quarter, we believe the carry ratio would have expanded more evenly starting against the Cowboys. Jacobs has worked his way out of the doghouse, and we expect him to get between ten and twelve carries a game the rest of the season. The Giants offense is one of the top five in terms of scoring. Let downs offensively don’t seem to be in the picture. Manning has the top set of trio receivers in the league. Pouring it on and scoring 30 plus points a game may happen.

So if you’re a Brandon Jacobs owner he is an automatic flex starter from here on out. If you’re struggling at running back, he is even a viable starter. He is on a fantastic touchdown streak. Like backs in the past that gobble up touchdowns in the redzone, Jacobs could be due for a two to three touchdown game in the near future. Finishing with double digit touchdowns is an easily foreseeable goal. Who would of imagined Jacobs fitting in the Giants plans the way he was sobbing and looked after week one?