Palladino: Victor Cruz's 30th Birthday Proving Bittersweet
By Ernie Palladino
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Happy birthday, Victor Cruz!
Well, sort of.
Cruz turned 30 Friday, an age when it becomes OK to reminisce about the "good old days."
Those weren't long ago for the Giants' wide receiver. But they were distant enough to consider them gone forever, especially in light of what coach Ben McAdoo has planned for him the rest of this 5-3 season.
If the final eight games go like last week's win against the Eagles, Cruz will spend a portion of his time on the sidelines, demoted from starter in the three-wide set to reserve.
He played only 15 plays last week before a sprained ankle on his second-quarter, 46-yard catch knocked him out of the game and, quite possibly, Monday night's contest against the Bengals. But even when he returns, be it Monday or next Sunday against the Bears, the starting lineup is likely to read as it did last week: Odell Beckham, Jr., Sterling Shepard and Dwayne Harris. Or, if he develops fast enough, fast undrafted rookie Roger Lewis Jr.
After watching his once-powerful offense plod through a lackluster first seven games of the schedule, McAdoo deemed it necessary to shake things up. So out came Cruz, in went Harris.
And as effective as that was, it still brought an element of sadness. It always does when a good guy like the "Salsa King of the End Zone" works so hard to get back 18 months removed from a devastating knee injury, be productive enough to remain a starter and then see his role reduced.
The changeover from his 20s to the big 3-oh won't work in his favor, either. Players start the downhill slide at 30. With Beckham just having turned 24, the rookies Shepard and Lewis at 22 and Harris at 29, Cruz has suddenly become the group's elder statesman.
That alone makes him expendable.
And the ankle injury only makes things worse for a player who spent nine months rehabbing a torn patellar tendon, only to follow that up with a calf injury that cost him the whole 2015 season.
This year was supposed to be his triumphant return. Instead, with just 25 catches for 377 yards with one touchdown and fewer chances from here on out, 2016 will have turned into a time of looking back at happier moments.
Times like that preseason game against the Jets in 2010, when the unknown and undrafted kid from Paterson, New Jersey, won himself a roster spot with touchdown catches of 64, 34 and 5 yards, only to beat up the Jets again the following year with a franchise-record 99-yard touchdown play.
There was his 2011 NFC championship game performance against the 49ers -- 10 receptions for 142 yards (eight for 125 in the first half). And then there was his first-quarter touchdown catch against New England to get the Giants on the board in the Super Bowl.
He fell two yards short in 2013 of putting together three straight 1,000-yard seasons, and might have reached that level again in 2014 had the tendon not snapped Oct. 12, leaving him crumbled in the back of the Eagles' end zone at Lincoln Financial Field.
Those were good old days, worth looking back on. But his days as a 1,000-yard receiver could well be gone forever as McAdoo seeks to juice up an offense that should have far more scoring potential than its current No. 26 ranking indicates.
Cruz's past will hold more memorable moments than his future from now on. That doesn't mean he won't produce more thrills for a home crowd that turned the low moan of "C-R-U-U-U-U-Z" into a symphony.
It does mean he'll have fewer chances to do it.
His days as a star have faded. He'll now have to accept his role as a complement, although a highly productive one. That 46-yard catch proved he's not just some decoy fourth receiver.
That's the bittersweet part of turning 30 on an underperforming offense.
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