Niners Could Wrest Cruz Away From Giants Rather Cheaply

Victor Cruz a 49er? Perish the thought. But San Francisco has 47 picks (actually they’ll have 15 after the Alex Smith deal goes through) in the upcoming NFL draft and would certainly hand over one of their two No. 1′s to the Giants in exchange for one of the game’s most exciting and productive wide receivers.

From NFC East blogger Jimmy Kempski:

Let’s assume the Giants tender restricted free agent Victor Cruz at the 1st round level, as expected. If some other team around the league wanted to sign Cruz, they would have to forfeit their first round pick to the Giants, if the Giants chose not to match the offer.

Yesterday, Geoff Mosher of CSN Philly tweeted a scenario in which it might make sense for the Rams, with 2 first round picks, to make a run at Cruz:

We’ll use Geoff’s initial thought, but let’s apply it to the 49ers instead. The 49ers already have 12 picks, will likely have 15 after comp picks are awarded later this month, and could use a bigtime playmaker like Cruz. Plus, their first round pick is way back at 31, which would be far less difficult to part with than something a little earlier in the draft.

What would you rather have? Victor Cruz at a high salary, or the 31st overall pick in the draft?

My answer is simple. Naturally, I’d rather have Cruz. But the above scenarios are very realistic, and those are only two possibilities. The Giants have very little cap room to play with right now. What they can counter with is unknown at this time.  The Niners are around $4 mil under the cap and the Rams $12 mil. Both can move some things around to go after Cruz, I’m sure.

The Giants are $10 mil under and still have to sign a slew of players. What they can offer Cruz is unknown. It would be a loss if they could not match the Niners’ offer and wound up with the 31st overall pick.

Or would it…? It would give them three picks in the first 61. A Rams signing would be better. New York would have their #19 plus #22 (which originally belonged to Washington) and the #19 in Round 2 (#49 overall).

Your thoughts…..