The Giants expect Victor Cruz to be on the roster this season and hope he can return to somewhere near the form he showed when the Paterson, NJ, native emerged as one of the NFL’s most exciting receivers. Cruz, though, will not be welcomed back at his current salary, a situation both sides anticipated, and a financial day of reckoning is nearly here.
Cruz, 29, did not play at all in 2015 because of a left calf injury that frustrated and baffled both the player and the team and led to eventual surgery. The year before, Cruz played in only six games before rupturing his right patella tendon, a devastating injury that forced him to get carted out of Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Cruz was paid more than $10 million for those two wasted seasons. The Giants will not pay him based on what he did for them in the past, and negotiations are under way on a salary slash that will work for both sides.
For this season, Cruz currently is on the books for $7.9 million in salary and would count $9.9 million on the salary cap. The Giants do not need any cap relief — they head into Monday’s start of free agency with the legal two-day tampering period a hefty $56 million under the salary cap.
However, the Giants will not pay Cruz top dollar heading into a season in which he is such a physical uncertainty. He has three years remaining on a five-year, $43 million deal that guaranteed him $15.6 million.
The need to accept a reduced salary is not a situation that blindsided Cruz.
“I don’t care about that stuff,” Cruz said last month in San Francisco, the site of Super Bowl 50. “I realize the way I came into this game was on a humble opportunity, and wherever this goes, I just want to play. It’s been two years of not playing. I just want to go out there and play, and whatever happens after that happens.
“I just want to play. Whatever it takes, whether it’s with the Giants or anyone else. Obviously, the Giants are home, they’re family. But I just want to play football.’’
If a deal cannot be worked out, the Giants will release Cruz, but this is not a sudden development and there is belief on both sides that something will get done. The Giants can pack a new deal with incentives that would kick in if Cruz is productive so he can recoup some of the money he will lose in a reduced contractual package.
At the moment, the Giants’ depth chart is paper-thin at receiver behind Odell Beckham Jr. Rueben Randle is an unrestricted free agent and the only pass-catcher with any real experience is Dwayne Harris, who in 2015 caught 36 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns, but is more of a special teams player than a bona fide receiving threat.
Cruz, undrafted out of UMass, stuck on the Giants’ roster in 2010 as a true underdog and in 2011 turned into a salsa-dancing star, catching 82 passes for 1,536 yards and nine touchdowns, teaming with Hakeem Nicks to help the Giants win the Super Bowl.