Giants receiver Victor Cruz takes next step in recovery

Once upon a time, before he became a contender for MVP of Page Six, this wasn’t Odell Beckham Jr.’s world, and we weren’t living in it.

Jun 6, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz (80) runs with the ball during organized team activities at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. “I just have to get used to it”, he said. “You play for those moments and to be able to cherish those with your brothers”.

“I hate that that causes so much distraction for my team and for myself, especially when a lot of the stuff’s not so much true, and there’s just all kind of things that they come up with and it just … it’s what comes with the territory though”, Beckham said with a chuckle.

Giants coach Ben McAdoo acknowledged that, with Cruz, “it was time to take the next step” when the players arrived for the three-day minicamp that punctuates their off-season workout program.

McAdoo was then asked if Cruz was going to stay where he was-working on the side with a trainer-until training camp. “I’m excited and I’m ready to go”.

“I heard a lot of, ‘Who’s the new guy?'” Cruz said after practice.

Cruz has been very frustrated by everything that’s been happening the last year and a half, and he’s hoping there are no more setbacks this year. “We’re looking forward to getting him back to training camp”. According to multiple reports from the Giants’ facility, Cruz went through the early portion of drills with the rest of the team’s wideouts for the first time this offseason. “It was definitely a mental thing for me”. He showed signs of progress last season, but the calf injury kept him from playing.

He aggravated the injury attempting to return to practice and underwent surgery to fix the issue, again costing him the season.

Cruz still has many hurdles to clear before he’s declared fit to participate in the season opener on September 11. But, the Giants should not let his confidence change their plan.

But for now, they’ll dare to dream and deal with any potential heartache after the fact. He then raised his hands in a touchdown signal to emphasize it. “This is only gonna be Year 3 for me, and like I said the day it happened, I want to be a legend”.

“We’ll see what happens next week”. So he joined the team on Tuesday, a pleasant surprise for Manning, even if Cruz only jumped in with the first-team offense for those final couple plays.

“I think I was ready”, Cruz said, describing himself as being at the turning point in his comeback from nearly two seasons away.