Offseason intrigue

The team I was most worried about making a play for Victor Cruz was the Patriots. They have the cap room, especially after Brady redid his deal. They showed disenchantment with Welker by franchising him last year instead of making a long term deal with him. They also did not play him at the beginning of the year and put him in the lineup only when they absolutely had to because of injuries. Further, they constructed their spread offense that gets great productivity out of that slot receiver, so there was a need. The first round draft choice that they would be giving up would be in the back of the first round because of Patriots finish last year, so there was also less value for them to lose by signing Cruz. So as they say on Law and Order, there was motive and opportunity. Now, however, the threat of Patriots making a run at Cruz seems past. They actualized their dissatisfaction with Welker by letting him walk and sign with the Broncos, but they immediately signed a replacement in Amendola. I guess their logic was: if they think Amendola can be as productive (or nearly as productive) as Cruz in that slot position, why not sign him instead of Cruz and save the 1st round draft choice. It took them about five minutes to announce the deal with Amendola, so you have to believe that they had already come to an agreement and were just waiting to close the books on Welker before signing Amendola. Now that they have their slot receiver, they won't go after Cruz.

The Rams, who lost Amendola could theoretically be in the market for Cruz. They have two first round draft choices, slots 16 and 26. They finished strong last year - improving to 7-8-1 and in a strong division might feel that they need to add talent to keep up with 9ers and Seahawks. The obstacle for them is that they came into the offseason in a slightly worse salary cap situation than the Giants did. Cruz is not the missing piece that can lift them up over their division rivals. They would be smarter to keep their draft choices in a draft that is QB-poor but WR and OT-rich, so they could do very well in the draft with their 2 first rounders. They could get talent at positions of need and would not hamstring their salary cap structure for years to come. Furthermore, if they are in roughly the same salary cap position as the Giants, or slightly worse, there is no offer that they could make that the Giants could not match. Rams could still make a run at him, but I doubt it. With the extra emphasis and value assigned to draft choices because of the rookie salary structure in the new CBA, teams are very reluctant to part with those draft choices, especially in the 1st round.

Another team that may pose a risk is the Vikings. They were a playoff team last year, so they may be looking to add that one weapon to put them over the top. They just traded their most dynamic threat in Percy Harvin and therefore may be looking to replace him. They have cap room, because they too have a young (cheap) QB that is not absorbing cap dollars. But like the Rams, they also got extra draft picks in the trade, including a first rounder, so they may want to sit tight, use their draft picks and set themselves up to be competitive for the next several years without worrying about cap problems in the future. We'll see about the Vikings.

As more time passes, it becomes less likely that Cruz will get an offer. You could imagine a scenario where a team is counting on the draft to fill their WR needs, doesn't come away with the player they wanted and then in desperation makes a run at Cruz. However, there's no need to worry about that scenario, because the RFA signing period is March 12 - April 19 and the draft is after that, on April 25. A really sly team might wait until the last possible moment and make an offer to Cruz on April 19. The Giants would have five days to match the offer and the offering team might hope that the Giants salary cap structure would have become too rigid at that point. Further, that the team does not have the focus to deal with contract negotiations because they are cosnumed with draft preparation. It's unlikely, but it is at least possible.

The interesting thing about the Amendola, Welker and Cruz situations is that they all combined to give an idea of what the market is for slot receivers in the NFL. Welker and Amendola, two of the best at their position, got about $6M per year. Giants probably offered a similar package to Cruz, but he wanted to be paid like the very best WRs in the game, the big outside guys and pull in 10 or 12 M per year. The market has now been set and it shows that the Giants were smart not to overpay for Cruz. If some other team comes in and offers Cruz $6M or so, Giants will probably match - Cruz still has some leverage. But if the April 19 date passes and Cruz still has only the tender offer from the Giants, the team then has the leverage. The best scenario for the Giants might be to make a long term deal with Cruz after the draft. He will get paid $2.8 this year and if he injures his knee in week 15 of the regular season, he's damaged goods and won't get a good offer in 2014. So Giants could offer him a "middle" package that gives Cruz more than the 2.8 he would have earned in 2013, but a little less than full market value that a UFA might get.

If you're interested in where Cruz stands among all WRs in the last 2 years, see below. Ranking is based on receiving yards for 2011-2012 seasons.

					Receiving
Rk	Player	From	To	Tm	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Y/G
1	Calvin Johnson	2011	2012	DET	218	3645	16.72	21	113.9
2	Wes Welker	2011	2012	NWE	240	2923	12.18	15	91.3
3	Brandon Marshall	2011	2012	TOT	199	2722	13.68	17	85.1
4	Roddy White	2011	2012	ATL	192	2647	13.79	15	82.7
5	Victor Cruz	2011	2012	NYG	168	2628	15.64	19	82.1
6	Steve Smith	2011	2012	CAR	152	2568	16.89	11	80.3
7	Vincent Jackson	2011	2012	TOT	132	2490	18.86	17	77.8
8	A.J. Green	2011	2012	CIN	162	2407	14.86	18	77.6
9	Reggie Wayne	2011	2012	CLT	181	2315	12.79	9	72.3
10	Dez Bryant	2011	2012	DAL	155	2310	14.90	21	74.5

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/14/2013.