Giants WR Victor Cruz wants a new contract

• Cruz helped lead the Giants to a Super Bowl championship last season
• Through seven games, he had 50 catches and seven touchdowns
• Giants' problem: They eventually have to pay WR Hakeem Nicks, too

Victor Cruz has proven he's not a one-year wonder. Now he wants a multi-year offer.

The New York Giants' wide receiver was asked Tuesday in his weekly paid interview with WFAN in New York about his contract situation. The former undrafted free agent, whose 50 receptions and seven touchdowns through seven games certainly give the Giants their bang for the buck on his $540,000 base salary, indicated he'd like to have a new deal soon.

"As a human being, you obviously want to, you hope to get it done before the season, obviously," Cruz said, two days after catching a game-winning 77-yard touchdown against the Washington Redskins. "We don't want to drag it along and become something that blocks the team in the offseason and something that is in the media every day.

"We want to just knock it out halfway through the season or during the season, at the very least, and get it behind us."

Cruz is in his third NFL season, meaning he's scheduled to be a restricted free agent in the offseason. If the Giants tender him at a first-round level, as the Pittsburgh Steelers did to wide receiver Mike Wallace this past offseason, it would come with a one-year base salary of close to $3 million.

Cruz obviously saw the $16.5 million per season the Detroit Lions gave Calvin Johnson this past offseason. He surely will want to get as close to that as possible, though the Giants probably would look to get him at an average of $10 million or so.

The counterargument would be he doesn't have the same body type as Johnson, but all of these comments from defensive coordinators (and even his own offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride) about how much defenses have to account for his presence will help Cruz at the bargaining table.

The Giants need to be careful with this one, however, because they have Hakeem Nicks on the same clock. Both wide receivers are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents in 2014. The Giants also have to address DE Justin Tuck's contract. The defensive captain's deal expires at the end of next season.

But hey, at least the guy getting Cruz and Nicks the ball – Eli Manning – is locked up through 2015.