Tailback Ware alone on stage for a while

Ahmad Bradshaw is a free agent and Brandon Jacobs can't practice until Thursday because he restructured his contract. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet D.J. Ware, the Giants' starting tailback.

Well, at least for the first few practices, anyway. But Ware isn't looking at it as keeping a spot warm for returning players. He sees it as an opportunity to show that he can be a productive runner.

"Oh, man, I'm ready," Ware said Saturday before his first practice as a first-stringer.

"I've been working out all off-season. My body feels good, no injuries or anything. My mind is strong, my body is strong and just ready to figure out what is going to happen."

How long has Ware been in the league? When he signed as an undrafted player with the Jets, he was vying to help replace Curtis Martin. Later that year, he was picked up off the Jets' practice squad by the Giants and was on the team that won Super Bowl XLII. Even with five years in the league, though, he's an unknown commodity to most, and although the Giants have remained high on his potential, he hasn't had many chances to fulfill it. He has 35 career carries for 161 yards and a touchdown.

"It's kind of been one of those things where every year, a guy was here longer than me so he's next in line," Ware said.

Now it's his turn. He'll have the spotlight all to himself.

"I can just go out here and control what I can do," he said. "I've just got to go out there and make something happen."

Baas believes he'll fit in

The Giants will have to work a new center into their offensive line, but they won't be able to do it until Thursday, when free-agent acquisition David Baas can begin practicing. For a position group that always talks about chemistry -- and a Giants unit in particular that had been together for about five years until this season -- that will be a challenge. Can they handle it? "I think we have to handle it," Baas said. "It is a short period . . . I know Shaun [O'Hara] and Rich [Seubert] had been here for a long time and I know it's a sudden change, but I'm excited to be here."

Giant steps

First-round draft pick CB Prince Amukamara remains unsigned. "He better get in here," Tom Coughlin said. GM Jerry Reese has said the two sides are close to a deal . . . The players voted unanimously on Friday to recertify the NFLPA. Even though he is no longer on the team, former player rep O'Hara was on hand to answer questions about the new CBA for the vote . . . Eli Manning called the decision by Peyton Manning to take less money in his new contract and allow the Colts to sign other players "noble."