CRUZ TO CRITICS: STAY TUNED
First there was the knee. Then the calf. Now the groin. With one injury after another over the past two years, what does Giants wideout Victor Cruz say to the doubters who think he’s finished, that are convinced his career is over?
“Tune in,’’ Cruz said defiantly. “That’s all.”
Problem is, his act has been preempted by injury. After another day without practice — albeit one both Cruz and the Giants deemed a positive step — the fact is he hasn’t played in a game since Oct. 12, 2014.
Over his first three seasons, Cruz caught 241 passes for 3,626 yards and 23 touchdowns. The seasons since haven’t been as kind — or productive.
Cruz missed 10 games in 2014 with a torn patellar tendon, and all of last season with a calf injury. Then — despite being treated with kid gloves in camp — he still had to be shut down last Tuesday with a tight groin. He missed Friday’s preseason opener and had a setback during team drills in Sunday’s practice.
It has been enough of a grind that Cruz felt the need for a man-to-man talk with Giants coach Ben McAdoo, who will eventually have to make tough roster decisions.
“It was a personal conversation,” Cruz said. “But it was one that I feel like I needed to have with him just to let him know where I was mentally, because a lot of it is just between the training staff, and they report to him on what injuries or whatever the case may be throughout the day and the week.
“I wanted to personally talk to him about how I felt and the things that I felt in my mind and my heart about the past two years and what’s happening now. It was a good conver- sation between men.”
Cruz didn’t practice with the Giants, but he worked off to the side under the watchful eye of strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman and did enough to be encouraged.
“I felt good. We ramped it up a little bit,” Cruz said. “We’re going to be picking up the intensity as these days progress, just to pick it up a little bit and see where I’m physically and do some change-of-direction stuff towards the end of this week and see where it goes.”
“He had a bounce-back day. He’s out there running on the side and looked pretty good. Of course, you’d like to get him in team reps and individual, but we’ll progress that way. … He was able to do a little bit more than he has,’’ said McAdoo, noncommittal about Thursday. “We’ll see. We’ll see how he wakes up and how he got through [this].”
McAdoo refused to rule Cruz out for Saturday’s preseason game, but it’s unlikely he’ll play in Buffalo. Big Blue general manager Jerry Reese had said in a radio interview last week he wanted Cruz to play in two preseason tilts to be able to assess his progress.
“I’m not trying to eye any specific number. I just want to go out there and play, and go out there and prove that I can still play at a high level, that I can still play this game,’’ said Cruz, who isn’t naïve to the fact that roster cut-down day is Sept. 3 and time is of the essence.
“I’m a normal human being, so I think about that stuff,” Cruz admitted. “But all I can do is take care of what I can take care of and control what I can control. That’s my health and being out there when I can.”
The question remains: When will that be?