REESE: GIANTS' ACQUISITION OF CRUZ WAS LUCKY AND GOOD

[RoanokeFan]

REESE: GIANTS' ACQUISITION OF CRUZ WAS LUCKY AND GOOD

"Giants general manager Jerry Reese was the lucky one who wound
up with Victor Cruz, but he wasn’t boasting Saturday that he
knew something more about the receiver two years ago than anyone else.

Instead, Reese said the Giants’ 2010 acquisition of the undrafted free agent
was an example of getting lucky — not some crazy identification of talent at the
NFL Scouting Combine or somewhere
else.</p>


“We missed him, too. We had him labeled just like everybody else — just a
local free agent,” Reese said. “He had a couple of redeeming qualities that we
liked. We liked that he had some quickness. We liked his hands. We liked the way
he understood the offense.</p>


“But we had him rated just like everybody else: Just an undrafted, local free
agent.”</p>


Because teams are allowed to bring 30 college prospects into their facilities
for visits each year, most GMs are very picky about those lists. But a rule
allowing unlimited visits from “local” prospects aided the Giants’ cause.</p>


Cruz is from Paterson, N.J., and played college football at
Massachusetts.</p>


“If he wasn’t a local free agent, obviously we wouldn’t have brought him in,”
Reese said. “You get lucky like that sometimes. That’s the beauty of it. …
That’s the beauty of scouting. It’s not a perfect science.</p>


“But we try to get more right than we get wrong.”</p>


They definitely were right on Cruz, who finished his second season with 1,536
receiving yards and nine touchdowns — not to mention a Super Bowl
championship."</p>


– Jeff Darlington</p>

[Voldamort]

thank god

[NYGRealityCheck]

So it was luck that the Giants got him in the first place.

And then, it was luck that Cruz managed to stay on the roster for the beginning of the season (Smith, Burress, Hixon) and getting the chance to shine for the Giants starting against the poor Eagles who didn't know what was coming....

[gmen46]

There's LUCK---
http://youtu.be/zKcBTaTed0Q



And there's Jerry Reese "Luck"-----
http://youtu.be/3b3vj-xgxm4

[coachjdc]

Didn't know about the "local" FA rule. Interesting...and fortunate!

[JacksGiant76]

I wonder if anyone has really taken a hard look at why he was over looked like he was. It seems like you could get a lot of information out of that and use that going forward. What was it about him that didn't really impress people coming out of college and how did his skill set transition to the NFL so well?

Seems like it was more than just "heart", more like some skill(s) he possess that tend to get over looked.

[JJC7301]

[quote user="NYGRealityCheck"]So it was luck that the Giants got him in the first place.

And then, it was luck that Cruz managed to stay on the roster for the beginning of the season (Smith, Burress, Hixon) and getting the chance to shine for the Giants starting against the poor Eagles who didn't know what was coming....[/quote]
+1. I was also afraid that he was going to be cut after his season ending injury at the beginning of '10. I'm not saying that I was predicting all of this, but I was a lot more intrigued with Cruz than some of the deadwood / already-been-there's that we had on our roster (i.e. Beckum).

[Diamondring]

[quote user="JacksGiant76"]I wonder if anyone has really taken a hard look at why he was over looked like he was. It seems like you could get a lot of information out of that and use that going forward. What was it about him that didn't really impress people coming out of college and how did his skill set transition to the NFL so well?

Seems like it was more than just "heart", more like some skill(s) he possess that tend to get over looked.
[/quote]We tend not to look at improvement over the years. Some players didn't do well in college but be good at the pro leve because of many reasons. One of them for me is that they get fully developed at a certain time and become one of the big talents. Another reason is that the player wasn't used that much in college so that player was like a box of chocolates, you don't know what you are going to get.

[Flip Empty]

It was evident that the Giants weren't too high on Cruz when they seemingly placed him on IR out of convenience during the 2010 season.

[bELIeve_in_Giants]

Everyone made fun of the Hoboken workouts this past summer. But, Eli invited Cruz and he took advantage of it (he was surprised Eli even had his phone number) and that had to help as well.</P>