It took a little time and the arrival of wide receiver Odell Beckham in the lineup for the Giants to find themselves offensively last season, but things looked pretty good by the time their first season under offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo came to a close.
Things might have looked even better if wide receiver Victor Cruz had been healthy for the entire season. Cruz tore his right patellar tendon in October and missed the rest of the year, leading to a long rehab that Cruz thinks will have him in position to return to the field for training camp.
“Obviously the next couple of months are very, very important in terms of building the strength and continuing to mold my body back into running shape and things like that,” Cruz said on Sirius XM NFL Radio with Bob Papa and Ravens wideout Steve Smith. “And I just want to take these next couple of months to do that and really focus on that. Training camp is definitely the timetable. More importantly, even before training camp, I’ll be feeling almost 100 percent around May-ish, June-ish and I can really start rehabbing and strengthening it and start running routes and things like that, hopefully.”
General Manager Jerry Reese has said this offseason that the team isn’t relying on Cruz making it back to his former level of play, something that’s much easier to do thanks to Beckham’s emergence during his rookie season. There would be even less pressure on Cruz if Rueben Randle and tight end Larry Donnell, who Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News reports was tendered as an exclusive rights free agent on Wednesday, remain consistent targets as the Giants would be able to stretch defenses thin with four reliable options through the air.