Players coming off of serious injuries often start training camp on the physically unable to perform list to give themselves more time to make sure all is well before they start practicing while also protecting teams from having to hold a roster spot or their injured reserve-recall slot in the event of a setback.
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz would seem to be one of those players as he comes back from last year’s torn patellar tendon as even a brief stay on the PUP list would give everyone a chance to be sure all was well before the wideout started working on the field. Cruz said this week that he wanted to show up to camp ready to go and then “let the training staff kind of pull me back and let me know what they want from that point.”
On Thursday, though, Cruz upped that a little bit. He said, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, that he expects to be cleared to practice in some fashion once the season gets underway. Cruz cannot be placed on either the training camp or regular season versions of the PUP list once he practices at all this summer.
Coach Tom Coughlin has the same expectation, although his previous expectation that defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul would take part in minicamp proved incorrect as Pierre-Paul opted for the usual path of franchise players who haven’t signed their tenders by continuing to stay away from the team this week.
