Ramses Barden no longer relying only on athletic skills, trusting his knowledge of Giants offense

BY Ralph Vacchiano
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Every practice last summer, it seemed Ramses Barden would do something spectacular. Usually it involved stretching out his 6-foot-6 body and long arms and snaring a pass that nobody else could grab.

At times he looked so graceful, and it all looked so easy that it was tempting to picture the rookie out of Division I-AA Cal Poly as the Giants' biggest red-zone threat.

Then came the regular season and he played in only three games.

One year later, it's a little easier for the 24-year-old Barden to understand how his rookie season basically disappeared. He thought he felt comfortable and confident last summer, but that's nothing compared to how he's felt so far this spring. And as easy as things appeared to be during his first NFL training camp, in hindsight he knows there was nothing easy about it at all.

"There was a lot to learn," Barden says. "For me to understand my position I have to understand the entire offense and what the defense is doing to make sure I'm doing that one thing right. There's more to it than 'Hey Ramses, go line up and run a fade, go run a curl, go run an in-cut.' There's so many things going on at one time on the fly, you have to be able to pick these things up and adjust and still play fast, still play comfortable, still dissect while you're running routes and making blocks.

"I'm starting to feel that comfort level this season."

Maybe it'll all turn out to be a big tease again, but there does seem to be a genuine excitement about what Barden may be able to do for the Giants this season. Heading into their full-team minicamp this week, he has drawn nothing but praise from the coaching staff for how far he's come during the offseason program. And he's back to making his usual dazzling plays on the field.

The difference this time is that, according to Barden, things are happening more slowly for him. Last year he relied almost exclusively on his size and his athletic ability. This spring he's played with a better understanding of what's happening around him on the field.

"That's probably the biggest thing," Barden says. "If you're able to watch the game and see it mentally, it tends to slow down and you can play faster. The more you take your time out there, the more successful you're going to be."

Last year things happened faster than Barden ever experienced at Cal Poly, where he was a dominant receiver in an offense that wasn't difficult to master. It wasn't easy for him to pick up the Giants' complicated offense, which requires receivers to adjust their routes based on where the secondary lines up and possibly again based on how the coverage reacts once the ball is snapped

As a result, while Barden was processing all that, he looked slow to react at times, especially off the line when the ball was snapped. During the Giants' 12 organized team activity (OTA) sessions in May and June, he looked noticeably quicker with his first step.

"In that first year when you're going through the offense, you're learning assignments," said new receivers coach Sean Ryan, who was the Giants' offensive quality control coach last season. "There's so much to take in that first year. In the second year, now you've got a little bit more comfortable feeling with the offense, so now you're saying ‘What are the details? What are the nuances?' To me, that's what this guy is going to do that's really going to move him along."

Even if it does, Barden has a challenge in front of him to get on the field. At best, he'll open the summer fifth on the depth chart behind Steve Smith (107 catches, 1,220 yards last season), Hakeem Nicks (47-790), Mario Manningham (57-822) and Domenik Hixon (15-187).

But none of them stands taller than 6-2. So given the Giants' need for a big receiver - something they haven't had since they cut Plaxico Burress after the 2008 season - if Barden shows any improvement at all he's a lock to get far more than the one catch for 16 yards he had last year.

"What I can control is what I do on that practice field, and if that wasn't enough last year to earn me time on the field, that means I have to give it more this upcoming year," Barden says. "I need to prove to the people that are evaluating me that ‘We can't keep this guy off the field.'"