Meet the Giants' Best-Paid Player Nobody's Talking About

When the New York Giants offense hits the field for its clash with the Dallas Cowboys defense, all eyes will be on quarterback Jaxson Dart, receiver Odell Beckham Jr., and, if he plays, Malik Nabers.

But keep an eye on the Giants' running game, which should be heavily featured against a Cowboys run defense that finished 23rd in the NFL in rushing yards allowed (2,133) and 26th in average yards per rush allowed (4.7) last season.

While Dallas has a new defensive coordinator in Christian Parker calling the shots, the league’s fifth-ranked rushing offense last year isn’t fazed at all.

The Giants, in addition to having Cam Skattebo back in the fold, now have themselves a fullback who thrives on doing the dirty work without the fanfare that otherwise comes for skill position players.

A “Nameless” Name

Patrick Ricard, the Giants’ 300-pound fullback who is in his first season in New York after spending nine seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, doesn’t need to have his name showing up in the headlines or the stat sheet.

If it were up to him, he’d just as soon go to work, do his job, and go home at the end of the day knowing that he had done his part to contribute to what will hopefully be the first of many wins for new Giants head coach John Harbaugh’s first Giants roster.

“I like blocking, and I like blocking for my teammates,” he told New York Giants On SI. “I think that they'll have more success running the ball than I will because they're faster and have more agility than me. I can block better than them. So it just makes more sense, and I'm okay with that.”

Ricard’s selflessness when it comes to carrying the rock dates back to his time in high school, where he didn’t get many touches either. That continued in college, where he was a defensive lineman, and followed him to the NFL.

That’s a rare combination for a man who technically is part of the offensive skill position group.

But Ricard, one of the very few pure fullbacks in the league and one who does the job extremely well, takes pride in what he does, and he does it well, which is a big reason why Harbaugh wanted the veteran with him in New York and why the Giants made Ricard the highest-paid fullback in the league.

Ricard, you see, has always held onto that “free-agent” mentality, which is to always remember that you’re one play away from being tossed out the door.

That mentality has driven the 32-year-old to become one of the most consistent run blockers in the game, with Ricard finishing with a PFF run-blocking grade of 70.4 last season, second (out of 14 fullbacks) behind Buffalo’s Reggie Gilliam’s 74.9 grade.

“I personally am more of an introvert. I don't need all the attention,” Ricard said. “I know some guys want the ball, wanna get big plays, and for me it's fine. So as long as I'm doing my part and we're winning games, that's all I care about.”

A Familiar Look and Feel on Offense

Ricard will get the chance to do his part with the Giants on Sunday night in a key division matchup happening right out of the box.

For Ricard, there are enough similarities between what the Giants have put together on the rushing side of the ball and what the Ravens ran.

“The run game is very similar because Greg Roman's a run game coordinator, and he was a run game coordinator when I was [in Baltimore] my first year in 2017 up until he was the offensive coordinator until three years ago,” Ricard said.

“When he left as OC, we still kept the run game very similar. So it's very similar in that aspect. But obviously (Matt) Nagy’s the offensive coordinator and (quarterbacks coach Brian) Callahan's the pass game coordinator, so you're gonna see a lot of their flair of offense as well, all intermixed with G-Ro’s run game.

“That's what I'm excited about because it's very similar to what I'm used to. So it's like, I already know a lot of the system to where I can get better at it because I've been in it for so long that I can build off of what I've been doing.”

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