It's amazing how quickly the circle of life spins in the NFL.

Seven years ago, Tiki Barber took Brandon Jacobs under his wing in the Giants' backfield. Soon thereafter, Jacobs became the elder statesman guiding Ahmad Bradshaw. And now, with Jacobs gone to the San Franscisco 49ers, Bradshaw will become the instructor for David Wilson, the Giants' first-round pick in this year's NFL Draft.

"I plan on using him as my project," Bradshaw said today in quotes released by the team. "He's a very talented running back and he's from Virginia. Two Virginia guys in this running back corps is going to be dangerous. I expect to use him as my project to get him better, to get him smarter and just to mature him a little bit, just to help him understand the NFL."

Bradshaw, a former seventh-round pick, is entering his sixth NFL season. This one will be different for him, though, because of the absence of Jacobs. He's already said he plans to be more vocal and take on more of a leadership role. No sooner did he make that promise than the perfect subject to lead - Wilson - landed on the doorstep.

Bradshaw realizes Wilson has a lot to learn in the team's complex offense, so he plans to help him in that regard.

"As a Giant running back, it’s one of the toughest things,” Bradshaw said. "I don’t see a lot of guys coming in and being able to grasp all of the different things you can do as a running back. You just have so many pass protections, so many pass route terms, so many run terms. You have different terminology from when you’re in college or when you’re with another team. It’s just so much different terminology with us and then we have so many keywords and hidden phrases. Different teams won’t know exactly what you’re doing every game. It’s kind of tough.

"Like I say, when I came as a rookie my plan was to try to impress the coaches and learn that playbook. Once I was able to learn that playbook I was able to impress the coaches by going out there and using my God-gifted talents and go out there and do what I do best."

Arguably the most important aspect of that rundown Bradshaw gave was the pass- protection part.

"If you can’t protect that quarterback, you can’t get out there," he said. "That’s how we look at it now. We’ve had a lot of rookies and a lot of young guys come through here. We don’t even let them, in practice, get behind Eli (Manning). When you’re behind Eli you know that you’re getting better and you’re trusted."

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There was no media access today, but the Giants provided those good quotes above and a few others.

WR Hakeem Nicks on his advice for second-round pick WR Rueben Randle: "All eyes are going to be on you so you just want to come in and try to do everything right. But in all likelihood you probably won’t. That’s just how your expectations have to be. ... (The first challenge is) grasping the whole idea of things and how we run things here, just making sure he’s accountable and able to take on everything that’s going to be thrown at him. It isn’t going to be a lot. We won’t throw too much at him, I’m sure, but just being a rookie, you know you have to come in and play the game the same way you’ve been playing it. Don’t put too much on yourself."

More advice from Nicks to Randle: "Once you get the playbook down, it’s concepts. Try not to learn just one position. Try to learn the whole offense and it will be better for you."

CB Terrell Thomas on third-round CB pick Jayron Hosley: "He’s facing the same opportunity that I had. When I came in there were two or three starters here that were in that spot. We’re looking for someone to come in and be young and energetic and help out and play special teams and learn to win from the best. I heard he’s a great player. I’m happy with the addition. We’re getting younger. I can’t wait to meet him and help him out."

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As a refresher, these were the players we mentioned as Giants undrafted free agents on Saturday (they or their agents/schools claimed they signed): DE Matt Broha (Lousiana Tech), FB Joe Martinek (Rutgers), WR David Douglas (Arizona), WR Julian Talley (UMass and Winslow HS), DE Adewale Ojomo (Miami), S Jojo Nicolas (Miami) and S Janzen Jackson (McNeese State).

Art Stapleton over there at The Record mentioned OL Stephen Goodin (Nebraska-Kearney) and WR Damian Davis (Mary Hardin-Baylor). And Tom Rock from Newsday saw something on Twitter saying OL D'Angelo McCray (Memphis) signed.

We'll let you know when all of the signings are made official.

I can tell you GM Reese said on WFAN today he was surprised Martinek didn't get drafted. He also mentioned Jackson and said he will be read "the riot act" as a warning. Jackson has some red flags, as I outlined last week.

Mike Garafolo: mgarafolo@starledger.com