Jerry Reese: on Victor Cruz: 'We'll see where it goes'

New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese was peppered with Victor Cruz questions Thursday during what was supposed to be his annual pre-NFL Draft press conference.

Reese did grow exasperated at the Cruz questions.

"Guys look, Victor's not here, he a free agent, he's exercising all of his options and we'll see where it goes," Reese said.

The GM did -- once -- refer to Cruz' time with the Giants in the past tense.

"It's all about the team for us," Reese said. "Victor was a nice piece to what we were doing. We'll see where it goes with respect to his contract.

"When we get ready to play when the season starts we'll have some good players out there. I'm not sure if Victor will be there or not. I don't assume anything. If Victor's not here we have other receivers."

Reese did get some draft-related questions.

"We just go into the draft looking for the best player up there. I feel like a broken record up here – you guys come in here and I say the same thing every year. We go into the draft – we really do – we go in there looking for the best player. And that is what is important to us, is to try to pick the best player. Then after the draft is over, after we look at all of the free agent stuff, we try to fill in after the draft," Reese said. "There is a lot of time before we go into the season. So many people are cut from teams. We cut down the 53-man rosters. Our team may not be ready to go until the week before we open up and play."

Here are some of the other highlights:

On Manti Te'o:

Reese said only that he had a "good conversation" with the Notre Dame linebacker and that he is "a very nice young man."

On picking 19th:

"We hate picking at 19, that's early for us," Reese said. "Hopefully we'll get a good player at 19. I think we will."

On priorities in the draft:

"We need linebackers, we need d-line, we need offensive line, we need every position. We try to get as many players at every position as we can," Reese said. "In the draft we try to pick the best player available."

On developing young players:

"The day and age of bringing your draft picks in and just sitting them for a year or two those days are dwindling away. I think you have to bring 'em in and get those guys ready to play. You like to develop guys.

"Quite frankly guys are not ready to come in but sometimes you have to force them in there."

"Nowadays you have to get them ready to go pretty quickly."

On Mathias Kiwanuka:

Reese said Kiwanuka would continue to be a "joker," but that "From my view he'll probably play more on the defensive line. That's coach Coughlin's call."

On James Brewer:

Reese said the third-year lineman would compete for time at right tackle and guard. "It's time for him to get in there and play."