Ralph Vacchiano & #8207;@RVacchianoNYDN 5m
Victor Cruz's six-year, $45.879 million contract actually lowers his salary cap # this year from $2.879M to $2.53M. #NYG
Ralph Vacchiano & #8207;@RVacchianoNYDN 40s
Victor Cruz's salaries: $630,000 in 2013 ... $3.999M in '14 ... $6.15M in '15 ... $7.9M in '16 ... $7.4M in '17 ... $8.4M in '18.
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Here is the salary breakdown from NFLPA:
2013 630000.00
2014 3999000.00
2015 6150000.00
2016 7900000.00
2017 7400000.00
2018 8400000.00
Victor Cruz got a $9.5M signing bonus, a $1.4M roster bonus in 2014 and his 2013-14 salaries guaranteed, for a total guarantee of $15.629M.
He signed the deal and he will honor it just like he did the last contract he signed.
Of course, that all changes if the Giants pull a Baas after 2014.
This 6 year deal is essentially a 2 year deal PLUS 4 one-year deals. The Giants can cut bait on Cruz if they need to after those first two years of the contract. If Cruz remains healthy though this won't be an issue.
It's a great contract for the Giants that keeps Cruz here during not only his prime years (he'll turn 32 during the final year of this deal in 2018), but during Eli's remaining years. Eli will be a few days short of 38 at the conclusion of the 2018 regular season, when this deal for Cruz is set to expire.
Only other GM that comes up in this conversation should be Pittsburgh. Plenty of other up and coming gm's who build via the draft slightly better than JR, but overall, hands down, he's the best. One more ring, which he will get, will end all that debate, if there is one, anyway.
Interested to see how the Panthers do with another Giants connection as their GM as well..
I wouldn't be surprised to see the Giants franchise Nicks in 2014 while they seek to come to a long-term agreement--assuming that they don't come to one before the start of free agency next year. In 2008 and 20011, the Giants initially placed the franchise tag on Brandon Jacobs and Steve Weatherford respectively before coming to terms with player on a long-term deal.
It wouldn't surprise me if that's how it plays out next year with both parties. The Giants will have room under the cap next year, in addition to the ability to create even more room under the cap by releasing Snee and Rolle, as well as extending Eli.
They're kind of like Kirk and Spock.
On the one hand, it would've been a very unfair thing to do to a player who was coming off two huge seasons at a bargain basement price and was already going to be underpaid under the original tender of $2.9M. Reese's argument in return could've been that the longer Cruz went without practicing with the team, the less value he represented, thus justifying the lower tender price.
My own opinion is that signing the tender was somewhat of a face-saving move for Condon and Cruz because it paved the way for describing the deal as a 5 year extension worth $43M averaging $8.6M. If he had never signed the tender, it could only be described as a 6 year deal worth $46M and averaging $7.66M.
Reese did a stellar job putting this together...we'll still have room for Nicks and JPP when they come up for contracts
How Contract Extensions Differ from New Contracts
Milton's question is an excellent question. The Giants had a 24 hour window during which they could have lowered Cruz's tender for 2013 from $2,879,000 to $630,000 on June 17th had Cruz not signed his tender on Friday, June 14th.
While it's a moot point now, it is still a great question. A lot of posturing goes on during these negotiations, so who knows for sure either way? I don't think they would have lowered it since they were close to agreeing to terms, but that's just a semi-educated guess at best on my part. This just reinforces the point that the Giants set a value on a player, and stick to it.
The Giants could stand to gain $8.5 million in cap savings if they decide to cut him after the 2017 season with one more year on his deal, devoid of any dead money. That is very significant. He'd be 31 at that point, and out of his prime, with Eli being 36, going on 37.
Cruz, 26, signed a six-year, $46 million deal, which is really a $24 million deal (the latter being the amount of guaranteed money).
Everything else I've read says $15 million.
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Recall that Tiki was consistently underpaid throughout his career compared to his production, but it never got ugly and every time the Giants gave him a bump in pay, it was always in the team's favor.
In other words, I think the Giants will do right by Cruz if and when it becomes clear that he is being seriously underpaid compared to his production. But it will be on their terms.
Source: Here's the link for the information posted above from overthecap.com - ( New Window )
This can turn into a 3 year contract, very easily for the Giants.... after 3 years, they can cut him, with only 3.8M in dead money, they still net 4.2M for 2016.....
Cruz better perform in that 3rd season.....
Cruz has 24M in jeopardy, if he doesn't perform....wow....
- Cruz has ~12th highest contract of any WR
- With the exception of Harvin, the highest of any primary slot receiver.
- 33% guaranteed - which is in the range for big contracts.
Giants
- 6 year contract
- locked up through prime
- structure allows Cruz to be cut after 3 years with little dead money and significant cap savings.
Overall I think it's a fair contract; it's in the Antonio Brown / Pierre Garcon range and there's very few above Cruz's pay grade I think he should definitely be above. If I had to point to a winner, I'd go with Giants in that they have the greater upside and downside protection - if Cruz outperforms his contract, the Giants have little incentive to pay up since he's already locked-up through age 32 season. If he doesn't live up to contract Cruz can be let go by the Giants with little downside after 3 years. That being said, Cruz's contract isn't that different than the structure of other WRs in his range; contracts increasingly seem to be back-end loaded in terms of cap hits making it easy for teams to cut bait if a contract doesn't work out (ie, they are just optics).
I don't think this could possibly have worked out any better. I thought VC's demands would just be too much to afford.
Really happy to keep him for good.