Despite being one of the biggest stars on a Super Bowl winning team, Victor Cruz, a restricted free agent this off-season for the New York Giants, might be available for a change of teams very soon, with the Wide Receiver needy St. Louis Rams looking like the most likely of suitors.
Due to their situation with Danny Amendola, the Rams are going to need to provide Sam Bradford with at least one credible target to throw at, if the Rams do believe he is, after everything, the quarterback this franchise will be led by for the foreseeable future. Cruz, despite catching for 2628 in the last couple of seasons, had a huge drop in productivity on pretty much every aspect, which might cause him to be pushed a bit to the outside by the Giants, who prefer Hakeem Nicks if they had to choose between the two.
Cruz is a restricted free agent, which is similar to what happens in the NBA, only hardly anyone messes with that. Meaning? Teams are free to send offers to Cruz while the Giants have to match them. It’s very rare that a player actually does leave a team as a restricted free agent because they didn’t match the offer. One other thing that needs to go is the first round pick.
While there are those who think that Cruz isn’t going to reach the heights of the 2011 season once again, he’s probably worth taking a risk on. But with a first round pick, that so many teams want to add but often don’t know what to do with? The St. Louis Rams have two first round picks, so one is affordable to use in a deal for Cruz, which might be more valuable to them because of their receiving situation, both Amendola and Gibson hitting free agency.
The likeliest scenario seems to be the expected one – Cruz staying with the Giants, but that’s not a guarantee, not with the Rams becoming more and more desperate to sign a quality wide receiver.