Victor Cruz will play for the Chicago Bears this season after spending the first seven years of his career with the New York Giants. But the wide receiver claims the team forced his hand.
Cruz joined Power 105.1 FM’s “The Breakfast Club” on Tuesday and accused the Giants of intentionally limiting his targets in 2016 so they could justify cutting him in February. The 30-year-old said the change happened halfway through the season.
“I felt it all year long,” Cruz said Tuesday, via SB Nation. “Halfway through the year, you’re like ‘Ok, I’m ballin’,’ and then the other half I’m not getting the ball and you’re just like ‘Well, what’s going on?’ Then I was like ‘Ok, I see what’s happening. They don’t want me here anymore.’
“Let’s say I played well and I was a 1,000-yard receiver last year; it would’ve been more difficult from a fan perspective to cut me. If I’m a 1,000-yard guy, they’re like ‘Well why are you cutting Cruz? He just had 1,000 yards, he had five or six touchdowns. That doesn’t make sense.’ But if I have about 500 yards or whatever the case may be, it’s a little easier on the fans to be like ‘Oh, he didn’t play well, so that’s why they cut him.’”
Cruz’s targets did decrease after New York’s Week 8 bye — he averaged 5.86 targets before and 3.88 after — but he definitely wasn’t ballin’ during his first half like he said. The UMass product posted just 331 yards and only one touchdown before the bye and put up 255 yards and zero touchdowns after. He also was competing with star wideout Odell Beckham Jr. and a promising rookie in Sterling Shepard.
Giants coach Ben McAdoo said Thursday that there was no accuracy to Cruz’s claims, and the wide receiver now is saying his words were taken out of context.
Thumbnail photo via Scott R. Galvin/USA TODAY Sports Images
