Giants coach Ben McAdoo refutes Victor Cruz's claim that team didn't get him ball

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo said "there is no accuracy" to comments made by Victor Cruz that the team purposefully kept the wide receiver's production low in order to make it easier to part ways with him.

McAdoo initially told reporters in a press conference after Thursday's organized team activity that he had "no response" to Cruz's claim. But when pressed on the issue, he emphatically denied the accusation.

Appearing on WWPR-FM in New York, Cruz, who agreed to a deal with the Chicago Bears on Thursday, sent a shot to his former employers.

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“I felt it all year long," Cruz said. "Halfway through the year, I’m balling; the other half I’m not getting the ball. And you’re just like, ‘What’s going on?’ It was like, ‘OK, I see what’s happening. They don’t want me here anymore.’

"Let’s say I played well, was a 1,000-yard receiver last year. It would have been more difficult from a fan perspective to cut me. If I am a 1,000-yard guy, they’re like, 'Why are you cutting Cruz? ... That doesn’t make sense.’ But if I have 500 yards, or whatever the case may be, it’s a little easier on the fans.”

The Giants released Cruz, a fan favorite for seven seasons after making the team as an undrafted free agent, this offseason after he caught 39 passes for 586 yards and one touchdown in 2016. It was the first season he'd played in nearly two years after suffering an assortment of injuries starting early in the 2014 campaign when he tore a patellar tendon.

Cruz tried to walk back the remarks in a tweet on Thursday: "I love the @Giants, they gave me a platform no one else did. I am forever grateful! I never said I was sabotaged, don't believe these headlines."

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Follow Lorenzo Reyes on Twitter @LorenzoGReyes

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