NFL: Giants announced release of Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Canty

The New York Giants have announced the release of Super Bowl winners Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Canty.

The duo have been cut for salary cap reasons and follow linebacker Michael Boley, who was released on Tuesday, in leaving the Giants just a year on from lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Running back Bradshaw led the franchise with 1,015 yards rushing last season, despite missing two games through injury.

A seventh-round draft pick in 2007, the 26-year-old has spent his entire NFL career in New York. He leaves the Big Apple sitting sixth on the team’s all-time rushing list with 4,232 yards, as well as scoring 32 touchdowns.

“Pound for pound, Bradshaw is one of the toughest football players that I’ve been around,” general manager Jerry Reese said on the Giants’ website. “Ahmad played football like Giants football should be played.”

Head coach Tom Coughlin was also full of praise for Bradshaw, who scored the game-winning touchdown against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

“Ahmad Bradshaw was drafted 250th in a class of 255 and to excel and to perform the way that he has, and to accomplish what he has, is a great tribute to him,” Coughlin said.

Bradshaw’s release means Andre Brown and David Wilson are the two tail-backs left on the Giants’ depth chart.

New York-born Canty, meanwhile, was signed in 2009 as a free agent having previously played for the Dallas Cowboys. In four years with the team the defensive tackle made 155 tackles, including nine sacks.