If you haven’t heard already, the New York Giants have released veteran wide receiver Victor Cruz. And I get it. I get that he was owed a lot of money, and he had a poor year statistically, yet this is still hard for me to comprehend. And I guess it’s because of what Cruz means to me and really what he means to the Giants franchise. And I think that one of the problems is that people forget what Cruz really was. When you mention his name now, people think of the injury. But before the injury, Cruz was one of the Greatest receivers in Giants history. He was Odell Beckham before Odell Beckham. How do you just let a guy like that go?
Sure Cruz had his struggles this year, but where they bad enough to warrant an outright release? Or the better question would be, what did they expect to get out of him with that awful offensive line of theirs? Think of it like this, we all know the offensive line for the Giants was terrible this year. when you have a bad offensive line, you have to get the ball out quickly. Obviously your first look is Odell Beckham. Your second look is Sterling Shepard in the slot, and Cruz is your third look. With that offensive line, they never had time to get to their third look. Maybe all they care about are stats.
Cruz did only have just under 600 receiving yards this year. not a very impressive number. Although Shepard only had just over 600 yards. And despite Beckham’s 1300 yards this year, if you watched the games you know he had an awful season. The stats just look good because he had an incredible amount of 60 yard touchdowns where he basically just caught a five-yard pass and outran everyone else. So, the stats can’t be the reason they let him go, right?
Well maybe it was the inconsistency. There were a few games where he didn’t have a catch. There was even a game where he didn’t have a target. But is that really his fault. He can only run the routes, if they don’t throw the ball to him that’s not his fault. At least he didn’t drop a ton of passes.
In terms of reasons to let him go, I can’t find one that makes sense. Cruz is a very reasonable man and I’m sure would have had no problem renegotiating his contract to a more team friendly number.
As much as I appreciate Jerry Reese going out and bolstering up the Giants defense last year (Finally). He has always been one to just cut, or not pay players who have been great and loyal players to the organization. Perhaps it’s time for someone else to be cut from the team.
