Ben McAdoo Dismisses Victor Cruz's Claim Giants Intentionally Limited Him

Former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz claimed during an interview on 105.1 FM's The Breakfast Club that the team purposefully didn't target him in the passing game to make it easier to release him this offseason, per Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports. 

On Thursday, head coach Ben McAdoo denied those assertions.

"There is no accuracy to it," he said, per Bob Glauber of Newsday.

Cruz, 30, caught just 39 passes for 586 yards and a touchdown in 15 games last season. And he registered 245 yards and his lone touchdown in the first four games of the season. 

The veteran wideout was convinced his inconsistent role was intentional on the Giants part, per Wilson:

"I felt it all year long. Halfway through the year I'm ballin', the other half I'm not getting the ball. And you're just like, 'What's going on?' It was like 'OK, I see what's happening. They don't want me here anymore.' A lot of people probably don't know this... Let's say I played well—was a 1,000-yard receiver last year—it would have been more difficult from a fan perspective to cut me."

"If I am a 1,000-yard guy, they're like 'Why are you cutting Cruz? He just had 1,000 yards and five or six touchdowns. That doesn't make sense.' But if I have 500 yards or whatever the case may be, it's a little easier on the fans."

He also said money played a factor.

"If I played well, they owed me a ton of money that next year," Cruz noted, per SNY. "So it was like, 'Let's get Cruz off the books.'"

He didn't necessarily think Eli Manning was in on the scheme, however.

"It's hard to believe," he said. "Even just to think about someone coming up to the quarterback and saying, 'Hey, don't throw it here' or 'Don't give it to this guy'—it's hard to even fathom that thought. Which I don't even know or think happens. I doubt it. But when you look at the film and look at how it goes down, it's the only way."

He walked back his comments later, however.

"I love the Giants, they gave me a platform no one else did," he wrote on Twitter. "I am forever grateful! I never said I was sabotaged, don't believe these headlines."

Regardless, Cruz has landed on his feet. Ian Rapoport and Kimberly Jones of NFL.com reported Thursday that Cruz would be signing a one-year deal with the Chicago Bears.