It Is tough to learn you are not worth what you think you are, which is why Victor Cruz is finding it so difficult to accept an offer that Giants owner John Mara aptly says will make the 26-year old receiver “a very wealthy young man.’’
The Giants want to make Cruz rich, but he wants to become richer. This does not make Cruz greedy and no doubt is exceedingly frustrating to him, and also humbling.
Cruz is learning the hard way that as a restricted free agent he is far more restricted than free. It has been 10 years since any NFL team gave up a first-round draft pick to sign a restricted free agent. One week from today, it is going to be 11 years.
Cruz has until next Friday to sign an offer sheet with a team able to give him more than the Giants are offering and also willing to lose a first-round pick to the Giants as compensation. It’s not going to happen. This scenario is playing out precisely as expected, leaving Cruz with two options as he readies for the 2013 season with the Giants.
There is a standing offer from the Giants averaging slightly more than $7 million per year, believed to be a four- or five-year deal worth between $29 and $36 million, with $12 million to $15 million in guaranteed money.
Cruz, after not getting a sniff of another offer, can sign that deal or else sign the one-year tender that will pay him $2.879 million and allow him to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2013 season. Of course, the Giants for 2014 could designate Cruz their franchise player, meaning they essentially can block him from going elsewhere until 2015.
The Giants’ offer is solid but hardly breathtaking, which is why Cruz feels he deserves more. After all, he can look at other receivers who are in the big-bucks stratosphere and correctly point out he has accomplished more.
Cruz the past two seasons has caught more passes for more yards and more touchdowns than Vincent Jackson, Dwayne Bowe and DeSean Jackson, plus Cruz gets bonus points for doing it for a championship team. All three signed deals for more than $10 million a year, but the Giants aren’t going there.
They view Cruz as a tremendous receiver but know Hakeem Nicks needs a new contract after this season and want to retain both of them. They also know Nicks was a first-round draft pick, Cruz went undrafted and that if they have to sacrifice losing one for keeping the other, they believe Nicks is the more dangerous and more difficult to replace, assuming he is healthy.
Cruz would be wise to try to get the Giants to bump up their offer a bit — a possibility with newly hired agent Tom Condon now running the financial show — then sign on the line. Cruz was a rookie in 2010 when Steve Smith rejected a six-year, $36 million offer ($15 million of it guaranteed) after his record-breaking 2009 season. Smith tore up his knee and the past two years was forced to bottom-feed in free agency, signing minimal one-year deals with the Eagles and Rams, the pot of gold he eschewed gone forever.
There is no need for Cruz to take a similar risk, not when in New York he can more than make up the financial difference in endorsements that flow to him like autograph-seekers.
The Giants open up their offseason workouts on Monday, and all eyes will be on whether or not Cruz shows up. What’s the big deal? This is a voluntary program and if Cruz doesn’t have a contract there is no reason he has to attend — especially next week, with the restricted free agent period still ongoing.
Justin Tuck yesterday at an appearance in Staten Island told reporters he believes the best way to settle the situation is for Cruz “to be there in good faith,’’ but that’s missing the point. Cruz this week showed up at a passing camp at Duke to catch a few balls from Eli Manning. Everyone knows he wants to stay in blue. The Giants aren’t going to be bent out of shape by a few missed April workouts.
Cruz did everything right the past two years and figured he would be rewarded. He is not going to cash in quite the way he envisioned, but he is in position to set himself up for life, meaning he certainly can come out of this a big winner.