Healthy Cruz all smiles

His numbers are relatively modest, but that’s almost beside the point at this stage for Victor Cruz.

The fact the former Pro Bowl wide receiver got back on the field and started the Giants’ first seven games going into this week’s bye is remarkable for someone who many wondered would ever play again after his devastating 2014 knee injury.

Just don’t list Giants cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie as being one of Cruz’s doubters.

“I never thought that,” Rodgers-Cromartie said Tuesday when asked if he thought Cruz was finished after tearing his patellar tendon. “You know how you have friends on the outside and stuff. I always had people asking from the outside, and I always told them that he’s right where he wants to be.

“He knows what he can do and I’ve seen him. I’ve played against him and watched him practice. He’s still got that step to the ball, that movement.”

Cruz has just 24 catches for 331 yards and a touchdown through the first seven games, putting him on pace for a 55-reception, 756-yard season that would be far below his standards from the three years after his 2011 breakout.

But Cruz sounded like a man reborn as he departed for the bye week Tuesday.

“It feels fantastic to be back, man,” Cruz said. “I can’t help but smile just thinking about how far I’ve come, and to be at this point now is just a beautiful thing.” Linebacker Jonathan

Casillas is still savoring backto-back victories in which the Giants’ much-maligned defense — unlike last season — was the savior instead of the fall guy.

“It was great,” Casillas said of holding the Rams scoreless for the game’s final three quarters in a 17-10 win in London. “As a defender there is not too many things better than that — a strong, strong performance from the entire defense.”