There’s an old football axiom that the backup quarterback is the most popular player on the team. Around here, though, that title seems to have fallen to the backup running back.

Ahmad Bradshaw technically is the team’s backup runner even though he leads the squad in rushing yardage and has half of the team’s four rushing touchdowns. He’s been getting plenty of love from observers both outside the organization and those inside the locker room. A quick sampling of what his teammates are saying about him:
—”He’s a talented player and he runs hard and very explosive,” Eli Manning said. “He’s a very fun player to watch. You just have to get the ball in his hands and he can make some special things happen.”
—”The little junkyard dog is what we call him,” Antonio Pierce said. “The way he has been running in the last few games, it looks like he is one of the best backs in the National Football League. He’s got everything I could want out of a back. Ahmad is turning into one of the more complete backs in the National Football League.”
—”It’s hard to imagine him being that small and that feisty, he just continues to run through people, too,” Justin Tuck said. “Not only is there quickness, but he’s a complete back and we’re lucky to have a talent like that.”
The amazing part is that Bradshaw is getting all of this production with so few carries. Bradshaw is sixth in the NFL with 375 rushing yards despite having at least 20 fewer carries than any of the names above him. His 6.5 yards per carry are the most by any NFL player with more than 40 attempts.
So get him the ball more, right? If he ran for 110 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries this week, surely he would have 220 yards and four touchdowns if he had double those handoffs.
Not so fast. That’s the kind of greedy thinking and unrealistic extrapolation that made Joba Chamberlain a so-so starting pitcher and turns solid “Saturday Night Live” sketches into flimsy full-length feature movies. Some things work better just as they are, in smaller servings. And Bradshaw is one of those things. “I think 11 carries for 110 yards is good,” Tom Coughlin said when asked if more touches for Bradshaw was in the works before saying he was “just kidding” and that “we’ll see how that goes.”
One of the reasons Coughlin isn’t committing to any more Bradshaw than he has already used is because he can only practice once a week with his ankle and foot injury.
But another is that Bradshaw, as well-rounded as he has become and as impressive as he has been in short-yardage situations, still needs something to play off. A changeup is just a slow pitch unless it’s thrown behind a fastball. There needs to be different paces out of the backfield and the combo of Jacobs and Bradshaw gives the Giants just that.
The Giants are expecting to have Danny Ware back in the rotation soon, perhaps this week, which should give them even more of a dynamic attack. And they can now be confident in knowing that if Jacobs is injured this year and misses games as he has in all of his recent NFL seasons, Bradshaw appears ready to step in as an every-down running back.
But right now, why tinker with a system that is working and has two Giants players among the top 10 rushers in the NFL and both on pace for more than 1,000 yards? “We feel like there is a chance to give him some more snaps,” Coughlin said of Bradshaw, “but we’ll see just how that distribution goes.”
Bradshaw deserves to get his fair share of the carries. But the team needs to be careful it doesn’t start doing too much of a good thing.