Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said on Sunday he’s expecting some team to sign Victor Cruz to a lucrative offer sheet in excess of $6 million per year. Tisch doesn’t have to worry about the Rams plucking Cruz off the restricted free agent pile.
Though the Rams have two first-round draft picks, they are up against the salary cap after signing offensive tackle Jake Long and are unwilling to give up one of those first-round picks, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation.
The Giants already have an offer on the table for Cruz in excess of $6 million per season, which is why Tisch said what he did. At this point, the Giants’ offer may be the best, or only, offer Cruz receives, as the restricted free agent market may have dried up. If that is the case, it will be up to Cruz to either accept what co-owner John Mara said is “a very substantial offer’’ that will make Cruz “a very wealthy young man’’ or else play in 2013 for the one-year tender of $2.879 million and test the market after the season as an unrestricted free agent.
* Thus far, the open market hasn’t been kind to Osi Umenyiora. The veteran defensive end hasn’t made a single visit. He has attracted interest from the Dolphins and Lions, according to reports, but the contracts getting drawn up for players at his position have been modest and it’s likely Umenyiora is not going to make the financial splash he was hoping for. The Lions, for example, don’t have much money to spend. General manager Martin Mayhew said on the team’s website Detroit probably is not going to write any more big-name contracts.
* The Giants are one of several teams that have expressed interest in quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, released yesterday by the Titans.
The Giants are in need of a backup to Eli Manning because David Carr is an unrestricted free agent and Curtis Painter is the only option on the current roster. Hasselbeck, 37, is expected to work a deal to back up Andrew Luck with the Colts. … The contract signed Sunday by tight end Brandon Myers is on the books as a four-year, $14.25 million deal but it is actually a one-year deal for $2.25 million. The final three years (and $12 million) are voidable. Myers’ salary in 2013 is $725,000 and he received a signing bonus of $1.5 million, plus a workout bonus of $25,000. If he pans out, he stays. If not, he’s gone after a year. His salary cap hit this season is only $1.125 million.
— Additional reporting by Bart Hubbuch in Phoenix