Victor Cruz is well-known for his salsa dancing, but he’s also well-known for being the business end of the longest TD pass in New York Giants history, a 99-yarder from Eli Manning where Cruz did much of the work.
“It was like a 10-yard out, Eli and I ran it a million times, and he really trusted me with it. He threw it to me on an out, I made a guy miss, and I was down the sidelines,” Cruz recalled to Tiki & Tierney during a visit to WFAN on Thursday. “I still get goosebumps when I watch that! You think about getting caught, but listen, I’m from Paterson, New Jersey, and all my people were there, I can’t get caught in front of them, or else I’d never live it down!”
That seems like a million eras ago for the Giants, but the old No. 80 is really feeling what he sees so far from the latest new slate, GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.
“I like Daboll and what he brings to the table, so I think it’s so far, so good,” Cruz said. “I see the front office kind of envisioning what he’s already done for Josh Allen and can do for Daniel Jones.”
And that's a lot of hope, because Jones is entering his fourth year in the league, and even if the team does pick up his fifth-year option, he has one or two years in a new system to prove himself.
“We all know this is the last shot for Daniel – this is where you find out what he has, and you want to give him the best tools and coaches to bring out the talent you believed he was,” Cruz said. “Coach Daboll is the first part of that, here to get an offense in place where we can score points and be competitive, better than we have the last couple years.”
Cruz said he has the belief in Daboll and Jones that they can put it together, even predicting Danny Dimes will still be here in three years – a prediction BT wrote down – and that starts with liking the skill players the Giants have…but noting that they have to stay on the field and turn “on paper” into reality.
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“I think Kadarius Toney is lightning in a bottle who brings energy, and Kenny Golladay is the leader of the pack who can make the big plays when we need them if he’s healthy. On paper, I like what I see,” Cruz said. “But in terms of production and staying healthy, those have been tumultuous. We’ve barely had any receivers to put out there some weeks. Darius Slayton has taken a step back in his progression, but I think they can fix that. They have guys they can lean on to bring it full circle, it’s a matter of creating an offense to get those guys the ball so they can make things happen.”
A new era off to a promising start…but as Cruz revealed, he didn’t think the most recent era was as bad as it got a rap for.
“There were a lot of guys in favor of Joe Judge, and I heard nothing but good things about how he handled his business within those walls,” Cruz said. “He had a hard-nosed approach, but this is football, and they’re asking a lot out of you to become great – that’s not always going to be an easy thing to do. But, I just think they fell short on the field from an execution perspective – it didn’t look like they had a passion out there sometimes, and that reflects on the head coach.”
Hear more from Cruz on Tiki & Tierney above, and listen to more sports talk from WFAN below!
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