Brandon Jacobs wasn’t interested in money for nothing.
Jacobs this summer was asked to restructure his contract, which is a nice way of saying the Giants wanted to take money from him in order to reduce his load on the salary cap. Jacobs was scheduled to make $4.65 million this season and after re-working his deal it’s likely the only way he can hit that mark is by hitting certain performance-based incentives.
Supplanted as the starting running back by Ahmad Bradshaw, Jacobs needed to make a financial sacrifice in order to help ensure that his friend, Bradshaw, could be re-signed. Not long after Jacobs took the salary hit, Bradshaw signed a four-year, $18 million contract.
“I kinda knew we were going to be in a situation where we were going to have to do that in order to get some players in here to help win some games,’’ Jacobs said on Friday. “Everything was all over with and done, my agent and I sat down and talked about XYZ. The Giants were very fair towards me in the situation I was in.
“It’s not about the money. I want to get to winning games. You can be as rich as you want to be but without winning games, that doesn’t help you out. You’ll just be an unsuccessful former player with a lot of money.’’
Jacobs sounded genuinely sincere, just as Bradshaw a day earlier said he owes his friend something for accepting less money.
“He doesn’t owe me anything,’’ Jacobs said. “He just needs to get in that big arena over there and do what he needs to do to be productive. He doesn’t really owe me anything, but I’m going to discuss it with him.’’
Jacobs last season carried the ball only 147 times (gaining 823 yards) but averaged a robust 5.6 yards per attempt, prompting coach Tom Coughlin to admit Jacobs probably should have had a greater workload. Bradshaw in 276 carries had 1,235 yards. Jacobs had nine touchdowns, Bradshaw eight.
“I feel like my one-year-old, Quinn,’’ Jacobs said. “I’m healthy,. I didn’t beat on myself that much. I worked out and worked hard, but I didn’t really beat on myself. I feel really good. I feel faster.’’