Ahmad Bradshaw wants to remain in New York and he says the Giants want the exact same thing.
Bradshaw's contract is up and general manager Jerry Reese has said that he will not proceed with free agents until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. However, Bradshaw said he has been told he is a priority.
"I talked to the Giants on exit day and they said I was a big priority for them to come back," the running back told a group of Giants beat writers at the Super Bowl media center in Dallas on Thursday. "I'm just letting them handle it. All I can do really is be ready for next year and be fully prepared."
And in order to be ready for next season, Bradshaw said he will undergo surgery to clean out his left ankle on Feb. 12. Bradshaw had the same surgery on his right ankle last year in addition to surgeries on both of his feet.
"It was something that bothered me," Bradshaw said of his left ankle. "It wasn't a big factor unless someone really got a hold of it. It was really no problem because I could fight through it and I'd been fighting through it for years. I'm just ready to get it fixed."
Bradshaw also revealed that he played with a fractured wrist. While he admitted he favored it at times, Bradshaw refused to blame the wrist injury for losing six of his seven fumbles. Bradshaw lost only one of those fumbles in the last six games.
Still, the fumbles forced coach Tom Coughlin to start Brandon Jacobs ahead of Bradshaw in late November. On Thursday, Bradshaw told reporters that he and his good friend Jacobs can still excel as a tandem.
Bradshaw finished with 1,235 yards and eight touchdowns in his first season as the lead running back. Jacobs rushed for 823 yards and nine touchdowns despite seeing significantly less touches than Bradshaw.
Financially, the tandem might not make much sense since Jacobs is slated to earn $4.65 million in 2011 and $4.9 million in 2012.
"I don't think they'll be able to finance both of us financially," Bradshaw admitted. "But you just never know. It may be possible. There's even talk they might keep both of us. You just never know."
"Brandon and I, we're brothers," Bradshaw added. "We love to play together. We feel we're a great duo together. It's just the nature of the business. You just never know what's going to happen with things."
Bradshaw may have plenty of time to get healthy with a potential work stoppage looming. He can use the time off since he will undergo surgery for the second straight offseason.
"At the end of the year, I felt a lot of easy tackles I could break at the beginning of the year, it was just bringing me down," Bradshaw said. "I had to lay down on certain tackles just because [the ankle] gave out on me or I felt it was about to get rolled up under me. It was different things and playing around injuries. That's what I was doing toward the end of the year."
Coughlin loves Bradshaw because he plays through injuries and always plays hard, sometimes to a fault as he tries to churn out every yard, which can lead to being stripped at times.
And the Giants' seventh-round pick in 2007 made it clear he loves New York and the Giants.
"Oh yeah. I would love to," he said of remaining. "I love New York, man. I love New York more than anything. All I can do is hope for the best."
"I'm happy with what I've done yards-wise, receiving-wise, helping the team out as much as I can," he added of his first year as the primary back. "The only thing I look back on is fumbles, which was a negative thing for me, which I can work on, which I can get better at. Other than that I feel good about the season I had last year in the starting role I had."
Ohm Youngmisuk covers the Giants for ESPNNewYork.com. Follow him on Twitter.