Victor Cruz a No Show as Giants’ Offseason Workout Program Begins

Victor Cruz a No Show as Giants’ Offseason Workout Program Begins: The Giants’ offseason workout program began yesterday. Though the workouts are officially “voluntary,” participation is obviously strongly encouraged by Head Coach Tom Coughlin.

Restricted free agent WR Victor Cruz apparently did not participate in the first day of workouts according to press reports. The first two weeks of the nine-week program are limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only. More involved activities occur in the following seven weeks with the final four weeks being the most important (see Sunday’s “News and Notes” update).

The deadline for another team to sign Cruz to an offer sheet is this Friday. After that, Cruz can choose to sign his 1-year, $2.879 million offer sheet with the Giants; agree to a long-term deal with the Giants; or holdout.

USA Today is reporting that while Cruz was a no show on Monday, he has been at the Giants’ facilities “plenty of occasions” this offseason. And as reported on BBI last week, Cruz did participate in workouts in North Carolina with QB Eli Manning, WR Hakeem Nicks, and WR Louis Murphy.

Meanwhile, fellow restricted free agent HB Andre Brown did attend the first day of the offseason workout program. According to ProFootballTalk.com, Brown signed an injury protection clause in order to do so.

A video of sights and sounds from the first day of workouts is available at Giants.com.

Justin Tuck Vows to Play Better in 2013: DE Justin Tuck has had two subpar regular seasons in a row for the Giants, but Tuck vowed on Friday to change that in 2013.

“For me, this year is going to be all or nothing,” said Tuck. “I mean, that in the sense that I’m going to do all that’s in my power to be in the right place mentally and try to convey that to my teammates. I might not have done the best job I could do in that situation in past years. But I’m in a great (mindset) right now, I really am. I can’t remember a time when I was this overjoyed to get back to work.”

“I’m not going to place any limits on myself; I think I can be better than 2010,” Tuck said of the season where he had 11.5 sacks. “But me saying it isn’t going to get it done. It starts with getting my butt in here and working my butt off with my teammates to get back to that level of conditioning and get back to that level of strength.”

A video of Tuck’s comments are available at NFL.com.

More Preseason Schedule Details: All of the details for the Giants’ 2013 preseason schedule have been set except for the third game against the New York Jets.

New York Times Q&A With Head Coach Tom Coughlin: Right to Win: Q. and A. With Tom Coughlin by Joe Brescia of The New York Times

Article on WR Hakeem Nicks: Nicks Benefits from Offseason Drills with Eli by Michael Eisen of Giants.com