Giants 4th round draftee Andre Brown suffered a torn achilles in practice today, and will miss the entire 2009 season. Brown is set to have surgery and hopes to be ready by next year.

Ouch. This may not look like a big blow on paper, but if Ahmad Bradshaw struggles as Brandon Jacobs handcuff, I am not as sold on Danny Ware as I was on Brown. Get well, Andre.

4th round pick Andre Brown out of North Carolina State officially signed on with the Giants yesterday making him the sixth of nine draft picks to receive a contract.

Brown showed good play making abilities out of the backfield in college rushing for 767 yards and starting all 13 games.

As well as run, Brown also showed he can catch the ball out of the backfield, accumulating 29 receptions for 309 yards during the ‘08 season.

Brandon Jacobs only caught six passes during the whole 2008 season and is not particularly known for his receiving. Brown could come in and make an immediate impact as a backfield receiver for screens and dump-offs.

FoxSports.com has ranked the top running back groupings in the NFL and has the Giants ranked fifth.

A bit surprising to see the Giants ranked so high in this seeing as they just lost one of the best 2nd string RBs in the league in Derrick Ward.

I like Ahmad Bradshaw a lot (as does every Giant fan) and I think he can definitely step in and pick up where Ward left off. The real question has to be in the depth behind him. Danny Ware has two total rushing attempts in his career and Andre Brown (who just signed by the way) is a rookie.

Third round pick WR  Ramses Barden signed  a 4 year 2.48 million dollar contract, including a 731,000 signing bonus.

Barden is a project and he looked it at OTA’S, struggling to get off the blocks and shake the younger corners. The best scenario is that Barden becomes apart of the goal line unit, but as the Brandon London’s and James Hardy’s of the NFL continue to prove, height isn’t everything (and certainly not Plax’s only attribute). Barden may develop into a standout receiver but it is highly unlikey to happen this year.

Fourth round pick RB Andre Brown  signed a four-year, $2.2 million contract. PFT reports the signing bonus as $433,000.

Brown will compete with Danny Ware for the third running back spot. Brown’s deal includes many incentives which he requested. Clearly Brown is confident in his own abilities and is very hungry, not in the Ron Dayne kind of way (ha a fat man joke). Brown was held back at NC State due to injuries, so if he can stay healthy the Giants may have found yet another stud at RB in the later rounds. Brown and Nicks are my favorite picks of this draft, as if you cared….care people, care.

Fifth round pick QB Rhett Bomar  singed a four-year contract, including a $185,183 signing bonus.

Bomar will compete with Andre Woodsoon for the 3rd QB spot. Bomar has excellent QB ‘tools,” but lacks Woodson’s accuracy. Still, Woodson had trouble taking snaps in the 4th quarter of a pre-season game, so I think the edge goes to Bomar. The winner will wind up the emergency QB and the loser will go to the practice squad.  

Earth and Fire Looking For A Mighty Wind

Running Backs Coach: Jerald Ingram
Offensive Coordinator: Kevin Gilbride

Running Backs: Brandon Jacobs (Starter), Ahmad Bradshaw, Danny Ware, Andre Brown, Dwayne Wright
Fullback: Madison Hedgecock

Overview: the Giants are one of two teams that have had a 1,000-yard rusher each of the past two seasons (San Diego is the other). Ingram has been handling the backs since Tom Coughlin took over in 2004 and previously worked under Coughlin in both Jacksonville and at Boston College. He can be credited with turning Tiki Barber into a superstar, correcting his style to reduce turnovers, and transforming the Giants’ running game into the game’s best. Last season the combination of Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Bradshaw (known as “Earth, Wind and Fire”) generated almost 3000 yards from scrimmage. Ward left via free agency to Tampa Bay in March.

Brandon Jacobs (“Earth”): From the day he was drafted in 2005 to this very day, no one knows what will happen when Jacobs touches the ball. They only know they don’t want to be in his way when it happens. The 6′4″, 260 lb Jacobs is a punishing, vibrant force that wears down defenses. If he gets past the line of scrimmage, he immediately becomes the biggest player on the field and there is little defenses can do except for batten down the hatches. He has been the anchor of the Giants’ backfield since Barber’s departure in 2006 and has racked up 2518 total yards and 21 TDs in his first two seasons as the featured back.

Jacobs came into the league a bit raw and is only now beginning to fine tune his skills and realize his potential. Teams that play the Giants must prepare for a physical battle first and foremost because of his presence, which sets the table for the slew of fleet backs that follow.

Ahmad Bradshaw (“Fire”): With his legal troubles hopefully behind him, Bradshaw can concentrate on becoming more of a presence in the Giants’ running game. He is ‘a change-up’ back, meaning his style is vastly different to that of Jacobs. Bradshaw usually catches defenses flatfooted when he enters the game. A multi-talented player, “Fire” has the ability to run effectively both inside and out as well as receive passes out of the backfield.  He has a knack for making the first defensive responders miss, which has resulted in several big plays for the Giants.  The key this season is to see how Bradshaw responds to the expanded role he will be given.

Danny Ware: Ware is a potential “Wind ” candidate who comes highly touted by the coaches and GM Jerry Reese. The 6′1″, 220 lb Ware is a product of the University of Georgia (Herschel Walker, Rodney Hampton, Garrison Hearst, Terrell Davis, Knowshon Moreno) and could fit nicely into the role played by Derrick Ward the past few seasons.

Andre Brown: Brown was taken in the 4th round this April and according to draftniks his talents are very similar to that of Ward’s. He is proficient at catching the ball out of the backfield and is extremely versatile. He will be in a battle with the others to see playing time, so it is important for him to get off to a good start in training camp.

Madison Hedgecock: The big fullback from North Carolina has proved to be an invaluable asset to the Blue. At 6′3″, 266lbs, having Hedgecock in the backfield is like having another guard in the lineup. He rarely touches the ball, but he has made the Giants’ running and passing game more effective. He slams into the line on running plays and watches Eli Manning’s back on most pass plays. As Jerry Reese likes to say “We’re a power rushing team”, and Hedgecock is at the forefront of that group.

Outlook: EWF is out to prove they can succeed without Ward. The expanded role of Bradshaw and the addition of Ware and Brown could make the Giants’ running game deeper than before by providing more options. In a season where the passing game is going through a transition, this group will undoubtedly take some pressure of that unit.

On his own personal blog, Giants RB Danny Ware declares that he can and can’t replace Derrick Ward this coming season.

Immediately after RB Andre Brown was drafted in the 4th round, Ware had this to say:

I feel like I can replace Derrick Ward all day every day.

But today, Ware took a different approach, saying this:

For all of the fans who want to see who will replace Derrick Ward as Wind in the Earth, Wind & Fire backfield, I’ll tell you: I can’t replace Derrick and I don’t want to be known as the new Wind. Call me Water.

H2O is one of the most important resources known to man. I transform whenever my environment changes. When it’s hot, I’m in my liquid form and can move through any boundary. When it’s cold I freeze and turn to ice. And once I get rolling, nothing can stop me.

If it ever gets too hot, I evaporate, and it’s like I’m running on the clouds. But I never disappear because when it rains, it pours!

That’s who I am. Water.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Giants backfield situation shakes out.  Although Ahmad Bradshaw is expected to be Brandon Jacobs‘ change of pace back, nothing is written in stone.  Ware was impressive in the pre-season and he certainly has the confidence thing down.

The Giants picked up running back Andre Brown from North Carolina State with the 129th overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. He had 767 yards on 175 carries and scored 7 touchdowns for NC State. Brown is 6-feet tall and weighs 228 pounds. In 2005 he set a school freshman record by rushing for 248 yards against Southern Miss in just his fourth game.

This is the highest the Giants have drafted a running back since they selected Brandon Jacobs, who was the 110th pick in 2005.

Check out highlights of Brown below. Try and excuse the poor spelling and awful Creed soundtrack that accompanies the clips.