From Rotoworld/Star Ledger Senior VP of player evaluation Chris Mara confirmed Tuesday that Victor Cruz was saved from the waiver wire "by some upper-echelon Giants front-office people." "It's no big secret he was on the bubble both years," Mara said. "That happens a lot. Look at (James) Harrison from Pittsburgh. He got cut (four) times." “He wouldn’t have made it to the practice squad,” Mara said, indicating a team would’ve claimed Cruz. “I mean, was it a matter of him maybe playing in a Jet uniform?” Or in any uniform, for that matter. “No,” Mara interjected to emphasize his point. “I said in a Jet uniform.” The Giants would’ve preferred to stash Cruz on the practice squad while he made the adjustment from UMass to the NFL. But his three-touchdown performance against the Jets in the preseason opener, the film that came with it and a quote from Rex Ryan all combined to save his Giants career. “I hope they cut him,” Ryan said after Cruz torched his backup defensive backs. “I know one team that would be ready to sign him, and that’d be us.” Imagine for a moment Cruz’s 99-yard touchdown coming for the Jets and not against them. Think of him doing a salsa in front of Fireman Ed. Consider, if you can, whether Mark Sanchez would be here now while Tom Coughlin was potentially out of a job and Reese was under scrutiny infinitely worse than what he experienced in August when he let Smith and Kevin Boss walk. --- Please Rex, filter your thoughts sometimes.
We made the Pats make the superbowl by birthing Brady, now made the cmen made it cuz of us by birthing Cruz Cant someone return the favor for us shit
So what, he complimented the guy. People are going to use this as a reason to continue the hate on Rex parade now.
I'm sure the Giants are making all their personnel decisions based on whetehr Rex praises a player or not- does rex ever bash a player?
It's pile on Rex season. Somehow everything else he says is bullshit but this one comment made the Giants keep Cruz. Ok.
The title of the article should be phrased, "Mara is lucky his hatred for the Jets led to the biased retention of Cruz." Should the Giants also thank Rex for Manningham and Nicks getting injured? If they don't get hurt Cruz sees less field.
I love Rex, in fact people can safely call me a Rex fan. I hope he is here for the next ten years. The verbal tongue kissing a player on the Giants bubble was kind of silly when you might get a chance to pick the guy up though.
Cruz Blew out his Knee in the game following that performance. Therefore the Jets never would have picked him up and neither would have any other team. Mara is just trying to take shots at the jets. Pretty pathetic we share a stadium with this cum dumpster
Exactly. What the hell is this garbage? This crap tells me one of two things, maybe even both: 1) the Giants put a lot of value in Rex's opinion; 2) the Giants are obsessed with the Jets.
BTW, it's not like Cruz would've produced in this Offense (especially in Schotty's mutant system) anyway.
If the Giants are, based on this article, think we can send over them over Mulligan for Jacobs/Osi trade? All Rex has to say is we really want to hang onto Mulligan since he is so good and the Jacobs and Osi are washed up and done the Giants should pull the trigger. Non story, trying to take shots at the Jets. And the Jets are the "little brother"? Seems like the Giants higher ups are afraid of Rex and don't like the Jets in the media. They are nervous while they have Super Bowl coming up haha
