John Mara Confident Victor Cruz Deal Will Get Done

John Mara Confident Victor Cruz Deal Will Get Done: Giants’ President/CEO John Mara was interviewed on the NFL Network yesterday. Mara was asked about the ongoing contract discussions between the Giants and restricted free agent WR Victor Cruz. While Cruz is not officially holding out, he has not attended the Giants’ voluntary offseason program since it started on April 15th. The Giants will hold a mandatory veteran mini-camp on June 11-13.

“I’m pretty confident that we’ll end up reaching a deal with (Cruz),” said Mara. “This is not that atypical a situation. Player contracts, particularly with star players like Victor, can tend to drag on from time to time. I think we’ll get it done.”

“This is the right place for him to play,” said Mara. “He’s a star in this area, he’s an important part of our team. I think we’ll eventually get a deal done, but it’s just a process that you have to go through. And we’re going through it right now. There’s communication, and it’s slow but steady, and I think at some point we’ll reach a deal.”

A video of the full interview with Mara is available at Giants.com.

Later in the day, Mara was asked about Cruz again.

“It’s May,” Mara said. “You have so many contract negotiations every year. They eventually get resolved most of the time. I think this one will get resolved. It’s not something I’m losing sleep over right now. We certainly want him back. We want him to finish his career as a Giant. We want to do it at the right price. Hopefully, eventually the agent and our team will agree on what the right price is.”

“You’d like to have him there (for the voluntary offseason program), but I don’t blame him for that,” Mara said. “I certainly would like him there in training camp. And hopefully this will be resolved before that. Again, it’s a contract negotiation. Sometimes they drag on longer than you’d like. But most of the time, they eventually get resolved.”

The Daily News continues to report that the Giants have offered Cruz a long-term deal worth close to $8 million per season that includes $15-18 million in guaranteed money. Cruz could also sign the 1-year, $2.879 million tender and become an unrestricted free agent in 2014.

ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that talks are ongoing and “the next 7-10 days are regarded as important to the objective of getting Cruz signed to a long-term deal with the Giants.”

Gazette (Iowa) Podcast with TE Brandon Myers: A podcast interview with TE Brandon Myers by The Gazette (Iowa) from Monday is available at TheGazette.com.

Quotes: Giants’ President/CEO John Mara on QB Ryan Nassib: “We’ve been very, very fortunate that Eli has been healthy for so long, has not missed a snap in I don’t know how long, but you have to get ready to groom somebody just in case. The guy was a quality player in college. We think he has what it takes to be a quality player in the NFL. To me, it was an obvious choice for us. He was so high on our board that we expected him to be gone on the first or second day, and we were shocked that he was still there on the third day.”