Giants Need Contingency Plan in Case Victor Cruz Recovery Goes Awry

Sunday, New York Giants Pro Bowl wide receiver Victor Cruz was forced to watch as 2014 Comeback Player of the Year Rob Gronkowski and the rival New England Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX. Sadly, even if the Giants had made the Super Bowl, Cruz, who suffered a suffered a torn patellar tendon in his right knee in October, would have been a spectator. 

But watching Gronk kill it this past weekend in Phoenix after battling back from his own major knee injury had to be inspiring for the 28-year-old Cruz. In fact, he touched on that in a new video for Bleacher Report's "Uninterrupted" series: 

"I'm 16 weeks post-surgery now," said Cruz on his progress. "I'm starting to run soon, I'm starting jogging shortly. So I'm excited for this next phase."

Cruz noted he attended the NFL Honors awards show on the eve of the Super Bowl in Arizona, and Gronkowski's award got him thinking. 

"There was a specific award that kind of stuck with me during the NFL Honors ceremony," he said, "and that was the Comeback Player of the Year. I think part of me wants to win Super Bowls and part of me wants to win each and every game that I play in, but that award is something that I think I want to set my sights on."

That's admirable, and it's not hard to envision. After all, this is a dude who built up a Pro Bowl resume after going undrafted in 2010 and losing virtually his entire rookie season to a hamstring injury. Cruz is nothing if not resilient. 

Date	Injury	Missed
2010	Hamstring	12 games
2013	Knee	2 games
2014	Knee	10 games

But this is a business and the Giants' front office has to make plans for all possible scenarios. This is the type of injury that can derail a career, as sports physical therapist Abby Sims wrote for CBS New York in the fall: 

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Even after a successful patellar tendon repair and when full knee flexion is obtained, the strength and explosiveness of the quadriceps may not be fully restored. This is but one facet of Cruz’s game, though one that has set him apart. He has a lot of work ahead of him, and hopefully he will prevail.

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ESPN.com's Dan Graziano even wonders if the Giants should consider asking Cruz to take a pay cut, which makes sense considering the emergence of Odell Beckham Jr. as well as the fact Cruz has missed time due to injuries in each of the first two seasons of his current six-year, $46 million deal: 

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This is a cold business, this NFL contract business. And with Odell Beckham Jr. having exploded onto the scene as a superstar talent and producer in Cruz's absence, the Giants may well have the leverage they need to seek a reduction in Cruz's salary over the remaining four years of the deal. And it may be in their best salary-cap interest to seek that reduction. They can point out the 12 missed games over the past two years and use Beckham's emergence to help their case and maybe shave a couple of million bucks off of that cap number this year.

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At this point, nothing like that should be off the table. You want to show the guy you believe in him but he certainly understands there's a chance things could go wrong. 

Player	Hit
1. Eli Manning	$19.8M
2. Victor Cruz	$8.1M
3. Will Beatty	$8.1M
4. Mathias Kiwanuka	$7.5M
5. Jon Beason	$7.4M

The good news is general manager Jerry Reese isn't being shy about it. 

“Any guy who has a significant injury—and that was a significant injury—you’ve gotta prepare as if, ‘What if Victor doesn’t come back?’” Reese said in December, per the New York Daily News. “That’s always in the back of your head. What if this guy doesn’t come back and be the player that we think he is?”

The Giants unwittingly covered their tracks to a huge degree last May when they drafted Beckham in the first round. The No. 12 overall selection had a historically good first campaign, becoming the first-ever Giants player to win the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Receiver	Year	GMS	REC	YDS	TD
1. Victor Cruz	2011	16	82	1536	9
2. Amani Toomer	2002	16	82	1343	8
3. Odell Beckham	2014	12	91	1305	12
4. Steve Smith	2009	16	107	1220	7
5. Plaxico Burress	2005	16	76	1214	7
6. Homer Jones	1967	14	49	1209	13
7. Hakeem Nicks	2011	15	76	1192	7

But Beckham was drafted to team up with Cruz. He took the league by storm with Cruz hurt during the second half of the 2014 season, but opposing defenses will be better prepared to cover the LSU product in 2015, and it'll be significantly easier to do so without Cruz wreaking havoc in the slot.

No matter how high Beckham's ceiling is, he can't carry this team all on his own. There's a reason Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, Terrell Owens and Randy Moss, all of whom have at various points been considered the No. 1 wide receiver in football, have a combined zero championships.

I'm not suggesting the Giants have to use another first-round pick on a wide receiver. Considering the holes they have at all three levels of the defense and along the offensive line, that would be suicidal. But they'd be smart to avoid a situation in which the unreliable Rueben Randle has a chance to be the only other starting option at that position. 

Randle's route-running is far too often atrocious, which explains why a ridiculous 13 interceptions have been thrown on passes intended for him the last two seasons. The 2012 second-round pick caught only 56 percent of the passes thrown his way during the final nine games of the 2014 campaign, which according to Pro Football Focus ranked 36th among 45 receivers who were targeted at least 50 times during that span. 

Even if Cruz can't factor in early or at all in 2015, the Giants should have a strong offense. Quarterback Eli Manning had somewhat of a bounce-back 2014 season and should be in for a good year with Beckham, tight end Larry Donnell, budding running back Andre Williams and veteran back Rashad Jennings. And the G-Men are bound to use draft picks and/or some of their estimated $16 million worth of cap space on upgrades for the offensive line. 

The problem is that still might not be enough for the Giants to break out of a three-year playoff drought. The division rival Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles will again be contenders in 2015 and Big Blue will probably be forced to make up for what looks to be a mediocre defense. 

This offense ranked 10th in football in 2014 and it had the league's third-highest point total during the final six weeks of the year. Beckham was on fire during that stretch, yet the Giants still went just 3-3. They improved on offense but still finished 6-10, matching their lowest win total in a decade. 

Category	2013	2014
Yards/game	28th	10th
Points/game	28th	13th
Turnovers	32nd	25th
Record	7-9	6-10

The window is closing on the 34-year-old Manning and head coach Tom Coughlin, who will turn 69 this offseason. The Giants can no longer afford to maintain the status quo—they have to get better. 

Cruz could make that happen, but the Giants can't pin all of their hopes on his right knee. 

That might mean devoting a high draft pick to a wide receiver for the fourth time in five years, and it also might mean chasing potential free agents such as Jeremy Maclin, Michael Crabtree, Torrey Smith or Randall Cobb. 

Those guys wouldn't come cheap, but Cruz can help them raise the cash by taking a cut or redoing his contract. Regardless, the Giants don't have much of a choice. If Cruz returns to form and they've added a stellar complement to Beckham, the offense becomes stacked. If he doesn't recover in time from surgery, you still stand a fighting chance in 2015. 

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon