Derrick Ward signs with the Bucs
posted by Kyle on March 2nd, 2009
Well, after one season with Earth, Wind, and Fire fully intact, it’s gone. Wind has signed with Tampa Bay, getting a 4-year contract worth $17 million. He will make $6 million next season.
Ward had conversations with the Giants about resigning, but when he visited with Tampa, he signed right then and there and canceled all the rest of his trips.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:41 am
Don’t get too worked up about this. Ward is not a stand-alone #1 back and he won’t have anywhere near as good a year as he did last. I’m excited to see what Bradshaw brings to the table as the #2 guy and bumping Danny Ware up to #3. There’s no reason that we take a dip in our run game in 2009. In fact, I would venture to say that the production would increase significantly!
March 3rd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I disagree that our run production will increase without Ward. Watching him play, especially at the games, was something else. I agree he’s not a standalone back, or not a complete one at least, but having him at #2 was a huge asset.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:56 pm
We are going to drop in run production on paper, but the game is played on grass. The full impact can never actually be determined because a lot of that will be influenced by the play of the line, by Eli, by the coaches, by the defense …
Having said that, the Giants need Ware to step up his production several notches. He has shown tremendous promise, and this year his training camp will be a lot different than last year. I am relatively confident that the coaches will prepare him well for this.
If you look at it solely from the perspective of RBs, this hurts the Giants. But Ward was due for a pay increase, this is a team sport, and there is a cap. The drop in production at RB is less than the drop in cap space dedicated to RBs. That cap space is going elsewhere in the roster where it can get better production dollar-for-dollar for the team as a whole.
We accounting types refer to this as analyzing the margins, or as I prefer to say, marginal thinking.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Just curious why you guys aren’t more excited to see Bradshaw pick up the slack? He’s just as serviceable as Ward is and in fact is probably the better player in the long run. Ward benefited from having Jacobs in front of him, and now so will Bradshaw. It’s the same story as last year, so to say that the run game is going to suffer is, at least in my opinion, not true.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I am less concerned about the step down between Ward and Bradshaw (which might not be much of a step down at all) as I am the step down from Ward-Bradshaw to Bradshaw-Ware. That’s really where the difference comes in.