The Giants hoped to get wide receiver Victor Cruz back on the field last year after he tore a patellar tendon in his knee early in the 2014 season, but it never happened.
A calf injury suffered early in training camp lingered throughout the summer and then got worse when Cruz tried to make it back on the field during the regular season, leading the team to shut him down and turn their attention to the 2016 campaign. During a Thursday press conference, General Manager Jerry Reese said that team doctors have been “pleased” with Cruz’s progress but said that the team isn’t banking on anything from the wideout.
“We’re going to take it easy with him, obviously, and make sure that he’s ramped up a little bit at a time and when training camp rolls around we’re hoping that he’s full go,” Reese said. “We expect him to be full go. He hasn’t played in two years. He’s probably more healthy than he’s been in the last two years. What we get from Victor will be a bonus and we’re hoping it’s a great bonus for us.”
If anything the Giants get from Cruz is going to be a bonus, they’ll need to do something to provide more certainty into the receiving corps behind Odell Beckham. Dwayne Harris is the only other wideout with much experience at present, which might explain why Eli Manning said the team needs Beckham to do even more for the offense than he did as its most explosive player over the last two years.