Anthony Rivardo
Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. has cleared 1,000 scrimmage yards in each of his first two NFL seasons, a bar most fifth-round backs never touch once. He has done it while sharing carries, missing time, and watching the buzz shift to an exciting rookie, but he heads into John Harbaugh’s first season as the most proven runner on the roster.
A box score that keeps validating him
Tracy’s rookie year set the foundation that the 2025 noise tends to bury. He ran for 895 yards on 192 carries at a 4.4-yard clip and added 38 receptions in 2024, totaling 1,123 scrimmage yards, the second-most by a Giants rookie running back in franchise history behind Saquon Barkley. As a 166th-overall pick out of Purdue, his debut was one of the better value returns of the 2024 class.
Year two looked quieter on the surface and still ended above a familiar line. Tracy finished 2025 with 740 rushing yards, 288 receiving yards, and four total touchdowns, crossing 1,000 scrimmage yards again even after a slow start and a stretch behind Skattebo. He closed the year in form, going for 103 rushing yards on 18 carries with 56 receiving yards against Dallas in Week 18.
The Skattebo question
Cam Skattebo earned the lead-back role as a rookie before suffering a season-ending injury in Week 8. The 2025 fourth-round pick ran for 410 yards and five touchdowns on 101 carries with 24 catches through eight games, then dislocated his right ankle, fractured his fibula, and ruptured his deltoid ligament against the Eagles on October 26, ending his season. Skattebo returned to 11-on-11 work at minicamp roughly eight months later.
| Running back (2025) | Rush yards | Rush TD | Receptions | Rec yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyrone Tracy Jr. | 740 | 2 | 36 | 288 |
| Cam Skattebo | 410 | 5 | 24 | 207 |
Skattebo’s eight-game sample carried more scoring punch, while Tracy’s full season produced the bigger yardage and receiving load. That split is the case for a committee rather than a clean handoff of the job.
Why Harbaugh’s offense needs both
Harbaugh built his staff to run the ball through the backfield, not the quarterback. Matt Nagy calls the plays, and Greg Roman joined as a senior offensive assistant, the same Roman whose 2019 Ravens set the NFL single-season rushing record at 3,296 yards. That blueprint leans on volume from the running backs.
The Giants ranked fifth in rushing at 129.1 yards per game in 2025, but quarterbacks accounted for 111 of the team’s 511 carries and 616 of its 2,195 rushing yards. Strip out the quarterback runs, and the Giants fall to 31st in the league, the production hole Harbaugh’s backs are being asked to fill.
The role that’s his to claim
Tracy played at least half the snaps in six of his final eight games, including 76 percent in Week 15, once the offense leaned on him down the stretch. A healthy Skattebo will reclaim early-down work and goal-line touches, but an offense designed to carry the ball 25-plus times a game between its backs has room for a runner who has twice cleared 1,000 scrimmage yards. Skattebo gets the headlines this summer. Tracy is the one the box score keeps backing up.
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