Why Victor Cruz Believes Daniel Jones Can Still Be Successful With The New York Giants

For six seasons, Victor Cruz had the opportunity to catch passes from Eli Manning, the Giants’ longtime franchise quarterback and future Hall of Famer who retired last year.

Throughout those 509 pass targets Cruz, an undrafted receiver by the Giants who took the NFL by storm, learned a lot about what made Manning so successful as a quarterback and teammate, right down to the little practical jokes Manning was notorious for playing on teammates.

But these days, Cruz, who works part-time as a member of the Giants broadcast department, has had a chance to watch Daniel Jones, Manning’s successor, come in as a rookie and pave his path as an NFL franchise quarterback.

Jones, Cruz believes, is not only on the right track despite some of his stats suggesting otherwise, but the former receiver sees many of the same qualities in Jones that made Manning so successful. 

“Well, I think first and foremost is his work ethic. I think the first thing you hear when I ask about (Jones) around the facility is that he’s the first guy in, and the last guy out, and even after game days. Eli was the same way,” said Cruz, who has teamed up with Manning to promote Stella Artois’  Stella Stadium Bites program with Blue Apron, a selection of four culinary items perfect for Super Bowl Sunday.  

“The second quality Daniel has is the temperament. You have to have a certain demeanor to play quarterback in New York,” Cruz said. “He has that kind of resolve—nothing is really going to get to him.

“So I think those two qualities, along with obviously some football things that he has to shore up—keeping possession of the football, not turning it over, whether it be fumbling or throwing interceptions—he understands all those things. So he’s going to get better and work at those in the offseason. 

Giants head coach Joe Judge, who initially refused to mention Jones by name when he was hired a year ago until he got to know the sixth overall pick in the 2019 draft, has gone out of his way on several occasions to throw bouquets at Jones, whom he declared the team’s quarterback for 2021.

But Judge’s ringing endorsement of Jones hasn’t quelled the concerns of fans and pundits who have continued to question whether Jones is indeed worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as Manning or if he belongs in conversations with Dave Brown, another Duke quarterback drafted in the first round of the 1992 supplemental draft who was a bust.

From a statistical perspective, most of Jones’ numbers from his second season are identical to his rookie campaign, the most glaring exception being a sharp drop in touchdowns (24 as a rookie, 11 this year).

But in Jones’s defense, touchdowns are often dependent on others to catch the ball, and the Giants’ receivers and tight ends didn’t exactly set the league on fire with their showing in the first year of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett’s system.

To put things into perspective, Golden Tate, Sterling Shepard, and Darius Slayton, Jones’ top three receivers, combined for eight of his 11 touchdown passes. Last season, Slayton alone had eight touchdowns.

And tight end Evan Engram recorded a career-low one touchdown catch (he also had a rushing touchdown) after topping out with six touchdown receptions in 2017 as a rookie.

That’s why Cruz is on board with the idea of the Giants bringing in playmakers to help turbocharge the offense and allow Jones to finally hit the levels the Giants believe he’s capable of reaching. 

“You got to get some guys around Daniel Jones that can take the ball in space,” Cruz said. “I liked Jason Garret’s offense; I think they’re explosive at times, but there are just too many times where Daniel Jones doesn’t have an outlet or takes a sack. 

“He has to do a better job of keeping the ball and not fumbling and turning the ball over—you saw a span of about a three or four games where he didn’t turn the ball over, and they won every game which kind of started that run and that will put them back in the hunt for the NFC East.

“But they’ve got to put some playmakers around him, and he has to limit his turnovers, and they will be successful.”