CUT & RUN: Giants running back David Wilson, known for doing flips in the end zone after scoring touchdowns (inset), wants to make big strides this season as he takes on a larger workload. (Ron Antonelli; Anthony J. Causi (inset))
David Wilson is a 210-pound meteor ready to flash across NFL skies now that Ahmad Bradshaw is no longer in his way.
General manager Jerry Reese did backflips in the Giants war room when Wilson still was on the board at the end of the first round of the 2012 draft, and Wilson would love nothing better than to be Flip Wilson again this season.
“When I score a touchdown, I get excited, so …
“If I don’t do it again, it will be tough to let it go,” Wilson told The Post. “I think a majority of fans enjoy it a lot more than the ones that don’t.”
Will you be doing backflips this year?
“We’ll see,” he said with a chuckle.
You haven’t been told not to, have you?
“I’ve been told not to,” he said with a smile.
Wilson was given that reminder by the coaching staff at the start of training camp. It was suggested to him if he did a backflip in the end zone, he might have to avoid Coach Coughlin on the sidelines.
“I think at the end of the
day he’ll just be happy I scored
a touchdown and I’m healthy and I’m ready to run another play,” Wilson said with another smile.
Reese swears the Giants had Wilson rated ahead of Doug Martin, who enjoyed a banner rookie season (1,454 rushing yards, 11 touchdowns) with Tampa Bay. Wilson (71-358, four touchdowns last season) said he believes he can have similar success.
“I look at [Martin] and I get motivated,” he said. “When you look at other running backs — not just him, other running backs in the NFL, Adrian Peterson and even going back to LaDainian Tomlinson, Clinton Portis, Doug Martin, Trent Richardson — I mean, all these guys having success, it gets you motivated, so you can’t wait till your opportunity comes and hopefully you can have the same success.”
Wilson found himself in Coughlin’s doghouse for a short while after a Week 1 fumble. So when you ask him the biggest lesson
he learned last year, he says: “I learned a lot of lessons.”
Such as?
“Don’t fumble,” he said with a laugh. “That was the biggest lesson I learned.”
It was a painful lesson.
“It’s a lesson you know, but like it happens in the game, so … but you want to do everything you can do to prevent it and show the coaches that you’re doing everything that you can to prevent it.”
When you play with Eli Manning, you don’t play until you prove you can pick up the blitz. And Wilson said he has improved in that area, among others.
“A more polished running back,” he said of what Giants fans will see from him this year. “I was a rookie last year. I’m not a rookie now, so it should be a big improvement on the way I approach the game.”
Some say he has a chance to be the most exciting, dynamic runner the Giants have had in a long time.
“If you look at the history of the running backs that have come through this organization, for them to say that, it’s a lot to live up to,” Wilson said. “And not just the history of the running backs, but actually the one we had last year [Bradshaw] was very good. And then we got not just me on the team now, Andre Brown is a dynamic running back.
“I like winning games, so when I’m working out, I’m not just thinking about my success, I’m thinking about helping the team have success.”
He’s not one to call himself dynamic or electric.
“I’ll let other people tell me what they think about my game,” Wilson said. “I know I work hard, so I do have confidence in my game.”
Wilson, who wants to return kickoffs again, will not reveal any personal goals for the season.
“I haven’t set a number on my goal just so I can go out there each game and be productive, that’s the main thing,” he said. “I normally set numbers, but I decided to keep those to myself and just go out there and play football.”
There is nothing like breaking a long one with MetLife Stadium roaring you on.
“It’s kind of like realizing all your hard work and dedication is kind of like paying off. It’s the moment you wait for, so when I’m running down the sideline, that’s mostly what’s going through my mind — not really,” he said with a smile.
“That’s a political answer,” he said with a laugh. “I’m just excited to score a touchdown.”
Flip Wilson.