Twelve million dollars; that is the difference in the amount of guaranteed money given to New York Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw and Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams. Bradshaw had to be very excited when he saw Williams sign his monster deal last week, thinking that he would likely be in line for something similar, however, his patience ended up costing him and he was forced to take significantly less. What went wrong for Bradshaw? Well, he watched interested teams in the Dolphins and Redskins trade for Reggie Bush and Tim Hightower and the Bengals keep Cedric Benson, leaving really only the Giants to negotiate with and taking away all his leverage. Everyone knew that once the lockout was over free agency was going to be a mad dash and second tier free agents like Bradshaw and Williams were in position to cash in on a team looking to fill their roster quickly and get more than they probably deserved. Williams was able to get his monster deal, Bradshaw has to be disappointed, even if it was his desire to stay with the Giants. All is not lost for Ahmad, the best strategy he can employ now is to just keep what he’s doing. Let’s say the next couple of seasons he puts up something in the range of the 1500 total yards he put up in 2010, if I were his agent I would advise him to hold out. At that point Bradshaw will be close to 30 and it will likely be his agent’s last opportunity to get his client the big contract he should have gotten this time.
