Cruz has three years left on his current contract and is currently scheduled to make $7.9 million in base salary in 2016 and count $9.9 million against the 2016 salary cap. Cruz said he is amenable to have his contract restructured.
“I don’t care about that stuff,” said Cruz. “I realize the way I came into this game was on a humble opportunity, and wherever this goes, I just want to play. It’s been two years of not playing. I just want to go out there and play, and whatever happens after that happens.
“I just want to play. Whatever it takes, whether it’s with the Giants or anyone else. Obviously, the Giants are home, they’re family. But I just want to play football, man.”
Sounds like someone trying to go into politics....
They will offer a substantial pay cut, and he will have to take it or leave it. He has not played football in 2 years. They can't afford to keep paying for injuries.
I keep hope alive for one more year and do some kind of a restructure pay cut thing which sets up 2016 as a put up shut up we will pay you at least one more year and then if things go south again it's bye bye birdie heading into next year's off-season.
I think that's fair for everyone and fuck it the Giants have gone this far waiting for Cruz might as well go one more round and see what happens. He would be a full year and change removed from the healing phase. I'd go one more...but set things up so it's easier to move on next year if needed. I am hoping that's doable here.
offering a substantial take it or leave it pay cut Â
sounds easy and sounds great on paper but you forget this is a business as well as people dealing with other people. You don't want to go too low financially and all but shit can Cruz but you also have to maintain fiscal responsibility. It's a fine line between good and bad business as well as sort of maintaining good morale, for lack of a better word. You can bet that Cruz is highly respected and regarded around Mara Tech. Offering the guy pennies in a take or leave it approach will lead to only one thing--Cruz leaving.
I would think the Giants would handle this delicately as well as honestly.
Before the organization even knows if his production has fallen off? I mean, they were (way too) happy to keep him on the team last year--until December! And I can't see that the calf injury should have much impact now that he's had surgery. And the knee--well, the knee probably wouldn't have been fully healed until next season anyway.
I mean, the team probably wouldn't have been able to evaluate his true level of play until next year, regardless of even the calf injury. Why wouldn't they have just gotten rid of him last year?
RE: offering a substantial take it or leave it pay cut Â
sounds easy and sounds great on paper but you forget this is a business as well as people dealing with other people. You don't want to go too low financially and all but shit can Cruz but you also have to maintain fiscal responsibility. It's a fine line between good and bad business as well as sort of maintaining good morale, for lack of a better word. You can bet that Cruz is highly respected and regarded around Mara Tech. Offering the guy pennies in a take or leave it approach will lead to only one thing--Cruz leaving.
I would think the Giants would handle this delicately as well as honestly.
The guy hasn't played in 2 years and has suffered two major injuries. If they hurt his feelings because they think he is worth the vet minimum, plus incentives, so be it. They can no longer bank on players coming back from injury.
Everyone is forgetting that we HAVE to spend money Â
To meet the cap floor to, if we aren't spending some on victor the we have to spend it elsewhere. The good thing about spending on victor is he is potentially better than everyone on the open market and most of his guaranteed money is up. So we have flexibility to cut him if he doesn't live up to expectations.
re-structure is different from pay cut. It will be interesting to see how far he is willing to go. We may have seen the last of him in blue.
Aren't they essentially the same. You can't just cut the pay. They have to reduce salary (the paycut) but some of that gets converted to bonus. The way to prevent a big immediate cap hit is to amortize the new guaranteed money, which results in an extension. Can they just cut salary, or would be cut the player and re-sign him?
I thought the CBA, while making it very easy for teams to cut players, does not make it easy to just cut their pay. If the player is retained, the lost salary (or a portion) shows up in guaranteed money. I thought the overall current value of a contract couldn't be reduced by something in the neighborhood of 10%.
I'd say it depends on how willing he is to take a pay cut and what the doctors really think about his injuries. He has had three major lower leg injuries since he signed his contract.
Coughlin had loyalty ties to Cruz. This offensive coaching staff does not.
...is that he restructures his contract to convert salary into incentives. He's still more valuable to the Giants than he is to any other team, so it's hard to imagine that he will be leaving for more money.
...is that he restructures his contract to convert salary into incentives. He's still more valuable to the Giants than he is to any other team, so it's hard to imagine that he will be leaving for more money.
Agreed. I don't he'll have a lot of value in the open market, or that any team would give him more than the Giants.
You really think he may be gone, Eric?
exiled : 10:52 am : link : reply
Before the organization even knows if his production has fallen off? I mean, they were (way too) happy to keep him on the team last year--until December!
Look what they were putting out there last season, that's why they gave him plenty of rope......
I agree with Milton, some sort of restructure to a performance contract.....if he plays and performs he gets his money, and no one would be more happier than BBI......
Cruz's cap hit isn't a tremendous issue on the books this year. The Giants likely won't find enough value to exhaust all their room this year anyway. But it would be savvy to convert salary to bonus for the coming years now when negotiating from a position of power. As mentioned above, if he returns to form and produces, great news. But he's a risk and likely always will be. Any insurance we can gain is good.
“I don’t care about that stuff,” said Cruz. “I realize the way I came into this game was on a humble opportunity, and wherever this goes, I just want to play. It’s been two years of not playing. I just want to go out there and play, and whatever happens after that happens.
“I just want to play. Whatever it takes, whether it’s with the Giants or anyone else. Obviously, the Giants are home, they’re family. But I just want to play football, man.”
Sounds like someone trying to go into politics....
Sounds like someone trying to go into politics....
Sounds to me like he is willing to restructure to stay.
I think that's fair for everyone and fuck it the Giants have gone this far waiting for Cruz might as well go one more round and see what happens. He would be a full year and change removed from the healing phase. I'd go one more...but set things up so it's easier to move on next year if needed. I am hoping that's doable here.
I would think the Giants would handle this delicately as well as honestly.
I mean, the team probably wouldn't have been able to evaluate his true level of play until next year, regardless of even the calf injury. Why wouldn't they have just gotten rid of him last year?
I would think the Giants would handle this delicately as well as honestly.
The guy hasn't played in 2 years and has suffered two major injuries. If they hurt his feelings because they think he is worth the vet minimum, plus incentives, so be it. They can no longer bank on players coming back from injury.
Coughlin had loyalty ties to Cruz. This offensive coaching staff does not.
Agreed. I don't he'll have a lot of value in the open market, or that any team would give him more than the Giants.
exiled : 10:52 am : link : reply
Before the organization even knows if his production has fallen off? I mean, they were (way too) happy to keep him on the team last year--until December!
Look what they were putting out there last season, that's why they gave him plenty of rope......
I agree with Milton, some sort of restructure to a performance contract.....if he plays and performs he gets his money, and no one would be more happier than BBI......