Aside from quarterback Eli Manning, Las Vegas has given Cruz the best odds - 8-1 - of any Giant to win the game's Most Valuable Player award. Not bad, considering the long odds he faced coming out of the University of Massachusetts as an undrafted rookie free agent nearly two years ago.
"Ten million to one - because nobody expected this kind of performance from me, including myself," Cruz said this week. "I just wanted to come in and do whatever possible to make the team and do some positive things out there, but never anything like this."
Across the field, the Patriots have their own rags-to-riches receiver in Wes Welker. Undrafted and cut by the first team that signed him, Welker eventually landed in New England, where he has led the NFL in receptions in three of the last five seasons. But his rise was a more gradual one.
Cruz's success came out of nowhere. Refreshingly, the Giants have admitted that they did not foresee his meteoric rise - one that got its start against the Eagles back in September. Even the 25-year-old confessed that he could have just as easily failed.
"It's a very, very fine line," Cruz said. "It takes a little bit of luck."
Giants officials even confirmed to the Newark Star-Ledger this week that they had decided following the 2010 preseason that they were going to cut Cruz and then bring him back on the practice squad. But they feared the New York Jets would snatch him up, so they kept him on the 53-man roster.
Four months earlier, every NFL team passed on Cruz in the draft.
"We had Victor Cruz ranked just like everybody else," Giants general manager Jerry Reese said. "We had him ranked as a free agent. Every now and then, you get lucky with guys like that."
