Jim O’Connor — USA Today Sports
Former New York Giants’ RB Ahmad Bradshaw has signed with the Indianapolis Colts, a one-year deal worth $1.1 million with bonuses and incentives. The New England Patriots seemed to be entering talks as well, but the Colts are clearly a better fit. It may not appear to be a good fit for Bradshaw for either team at first glance, as both teams seems to have their running backs set.
The Colts currently have RB Vick Ballard as their starting running back, with RB Donald Brown and RB Delone Carter backing him up. While it may seem as if there’s no room for Bradshaw here, Bradshaw can still become a dependable and reliable back on this team. With all of these backs still relatively unproven, it wouldn’t be hard to argue that Bradshaw is better than all three of those running backs.
Also, the Colts replaced offensive coordinator Bruce Arians with Pep Hamilton. Hamilton happened to be QB Andrew Luck’s offensive coordinator at Stanford, so it brings familiarity to the leader of the offense. Even though Luck was the best quarterback in college, Stanford still included a heavy dose of jumbo packages and power-run plays, which will benefit any running back.
The Patriots have RB Stevan Ridley and RB Shane Vereen as their top-two backs, in addition to newly acquired RB Leon Washington and RB LeGarrette Blount. The Patriots have all of these running backs, but with Josh McDaniels running the offense, the Patriots will be throwing the ball more than they will be running. With four running backs already and an offense that doesn’t run a lot, it clearly isn’t a fit for Bradshaw.
In a perfect situation, Bradshaw would just wait for a team that can actually use his services as an every-down back right away. However, the interest just hasn’t been there, so Bradshaw has to make the most of any given opportunity. Considering the teams that were interested, Bradshaw made the right choice.
