Barden Hopes to Inject a Healthy Dose of Production into Giants’ 2011 Offense
07/24/2011 | Author Pat Traina

By Mike Fiammetta

If it were up to Giants WR Ramses Barden, life, and not just nutritional science, would center on vitamins — Ramses’ Daily Vitamins, that is.

No, that’s not an advertisement. Rather, the third-year New York Giants receiver is fond of beginning his mornings on Twitter with quotes that, despite featuring a wide range of topics, typically manage to provoke thought and which he has labeled “Ramses Daily Vitamin.”

His most recent? “If you died today, what would they say about you?”

Before that? “It’s really easy to waste talent.”

Want one more? “Nothing good happens in the club after 12:45.”

“I’ll type them into my phone if I see or experience something that kind of me gives me some inspiration,” Barden, whose Twitter handle is @RamsesNYG, said. “I’ll make a note of it and try to find a way to translate it to where it speaks to everybody who might be following me.”

The concept might seem silly to some, but Barden sees it as a way to reach out to his followers and generate positive thoughts among them. The 6- 6, 227-pound receiver, who is still looking to find his groove in the NFL, recognizes he has an audience of fans and that Twitter is a good way to sty in touch with them.

“Twitter has really blown up as a social media network,” Barden said. “There’s different ways to reach people now with the new-age technology. That tends to be the best way to kind of certain things out there and, I don’t know, I feel like I want to have a really strong, positive effect on the world.”

He’s also hoping to have a really strong and positive effect on the Giants’ offensive production.Two seasons removed from being a third-round draft pick, the 25-year old Barden has played in only nine games, having recorded just six catches for 80 yards and zero touchdowns.

“The hardest part is the patience,” Barden said. “I’ve always considered myself a patient person, but a couple of things I’ve learned in this league (are) you get an opportunity eventually, especially if you’re drafted. That opportunity might not come when you want it, when you expect it, but you have to be prepared for when it does.

“I’ve learned a new sense of patience. I’m still working hard as ever to get what I want, but at the same time, there has to be a time when the team feels like they need my services, and I need to be prepared to deliver when that day comes.”

Last year, just as it appeared that Barden was about to deliver , he broke his ankle and suffered ligament damage in Week 10, an injury that landed him on injured reserve.

Before that, there was talk shortly after Barden was drafted that he was a strong candidate to replace WR Plaxico Burress, whom the team released after he accidentally shot himself in the thigh in a November 2008 nightclub incident.

However, for a third-round prospect, let alone one from a Division I-AA school like Cal Poly, those expectations probably were a bit unrealisticfor a guy who had yet to set foot on an NFL field.

“There were some mixed expectations following the draft,” Barden admitted before adding, “In my mind, I thought they weren’t lofty enough. I try to put as much pressure on myself as possible.

“Being from a small school, I know a lot of people didn’t expect much from me, especially right away from a development standpoint, from a route-running standpoint, from just knowing the NFL system and learning the offense — which is definitely respectful, and I understand that. But in my mind, I always try to put as much pressure on myself as possible.”

Replacing Burress’ production — 244 catches, 3,681 receiving yards and 33 touchdowns — was no challenge for a rookie from a smaller college program to match. Still, that didn’t stop most fans from seeing Barden as an instant red-zone threat capable of pulling down any ball thrown his way.

However, as Barden learned, there’s much more to the position than the apparent turn-and-catch.

“This is a man’s game, and this is probably one of the hardest sports — if not the hardest sport — in the world,” he said. “At this position, it combines so much athletic ability with the necessity to maintain and understand the offense. So from that standpoint, there’s so much you have to be conscious of at all times, physically and mentally. As a rookie, asking anybody to do that is an extreme burden.”

That doesn’t mean that Barden wasn’t up for the task.

“Had I been thrown into the fire my rookie year, I like to think that I would have been able to contribute. That wasn’t the case, and it’s given me a chance to learn and grow and know the offense.”

Fortunately for Barden, he didn’t have to step right in and contribute from the get-go thanks to the existing receivers quickly rounding into one of the top units in the league, even without Burress.

While Barden awaited his chance, he was always hard at work trying to learn the tricks of his craft so that when he was called upon, he’d be ready to contribute.

“I feel like I probably know the offense as good as anybody else on our team, thanks to (QB) Eli (Manning),” he said. “I feel like I’m at a place now where I’ve really found that comfort level with the team and with the coaches, with my teammates and our system in general.”

With the Giants receiving corps a little less settled due to injuries — Steve Smith, Domenik Hixon, and Victor Cruz were all sidelined last year due to their respective ailments — and the addition of third rounder Jerrel Jernigan from Troy, Barden is hoping to pick up where he left off last year before his injury forced him to become a spectator.

To ready himself, Barden said he spent extra time before the lockout picking the brains of receivers coach Sean Ryan so that he could work on the little things that might have been holding him back as a player.

“We talked about some things that I needed to work on,” Barden said. “I know some of the tougher concepts in our offense, and I wanted him to make me a tape, a cut-up of some of those things. Being the coach that he is, he always wants to see us get better. So he did that happily, making me a tape, making some notes that I could go over and study this entire off season.”

Barden said the majority of the things Ryan told him to improve upon had to do with having more of an “instinctive reaction.”

“The coaching staff has complete confidence in me that I know what I’m doing on the field at all times,” Barden said. “That’s of my strongest attributes in that they can put me anywhere in the receiver position. They know that Ramses is going to do the right thing; make the right reads; run the right routes; run the hot route and the sight adjustment when there’s blitzes. But we need him to feel even more comfortable and do it with that more (instincts), and that much more precision.”

When play does resume, Barden said he’s ready to take advantage of whatever situations put him on the field.

“As an offense, we’re really good at being on the same page,” Barden said. “If [offensive coordinator Kevin] Gilbride is watching film after practice, and he picks up on something — a route that needs to be modified, or something that he’s curious about, he’ll run it right into our receiver room while we’re talking and we’re going through some things and he’ll say, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ Get some feedback, get on the same page, then he’ll bring it to Eli and he’ll go over it the next day in practice.

“That’s just the urgency that the entire organization brings, the entire offense brings. It kind of forces you to focus a little bit more and study. Eventually, you’re on the same page and you start learning the nuances and the small details that kind of make the difference between being a successful player and just trying to be a successful player.”

Very good read. I really have a lot of confidence in Ramses this year. I think if given the opportunity he'll make the best of it. I'd like to see him more involved. Should Boss leave via Free Agency, Ramses would step up as that tall target for Eli.

Matter of fact since we are so deep at WR I'd like to see us start Smith on the Pup list so he has plenty of time to heal. Nicks, Manningham, Barden could be a very nice 3 WR set.

Pizan wrote:Very good read. I really have a lot of confidence in Ramses this year. I think if given the opportunity he'll make the best of it. I'd like to see him more involved. Should Boss leave via Free Agency, Ramses would step up as that tall target for Eli.

Matter of fact since we are so deep at WR I'd like to see us start Smith on the Pup list so he has plenty of time to heal. Nicks, Manningham, Barden could be a very nice 3 WR set.

maybe but I'll believe Barden is a good player when I see it. There's a reason that he's not involved on more plays so it makes me wonder?
There is certainly a lot of potential between all of them though.

Being buries behind Nicks, Smith and Manningham will limit his chances and he was raw when he came in.

He was just starting to bring it together when he got hurt.

If Smith isn't back, this guy could be the reason, he has a ton of ability and I think could be a star