Can any of their backs hang on to the dang ball?
In a franchise-shaking Week 10 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers last season, the game that finally saw Daniel Jones lose his job, the New York Giants felt with certainty the impact of poor running back ball security.
Then-rookie Tyrone Tracy wrecked an 18-carry, 103-yard individual performance and a chance for the Giants rescue an awful game by fumbling on the first play of overtime, setting Carolina up at the New York 23-yard line and leading to a 36-yard field goal that dropped the Giants to 2-8.
The Giants are excited about Tracy, as they should be after a rookie season that saw him 1,123 yards from scrimmage despite not getting meaningful playing time until Week 5.
The Giants are also excited about fourth-round pick, a player called a “carnage creator” by Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, as they should be. Skattebo’s wrecking ball style and pass-catching acumen should be a nice complement to Tracy’s big-play ability.
Back, though, to that fumble by Tracy against the Panthers.
The biggest question about the Giants’ young bucks in the backfield isn’t whether they can run successfully. It is whether either of them can be trusted to hang on to the football.
Tracy fumbled five times in 230 touches last season, once every 46 touches. Over the 13 games during which Tracy was the team’s primary back he averaged 16.2 touches per game. So, that’s a fumble every three games. Not good enough.
A wide receiver most of his college career, Tracy also had surprising trouble catching the ball. He dropped five of 53 targets (9.4%).
“Ball security was a huge thing for me last year,” Tracy said this spring. “I had too many on the ground.”
Tracy has been working on his fundamentals and using a grip strengthener to try and make it harder for defenders to strip the ball from his grasp.
Skattebo is a battering ram who likes to run through defenders rather than around them, and fights for every inch. That is entertaining and helpful, generally, but it also sometimes puts the ball at risk.
Skattebo was charged with 10 fumbles over three collegiate seasons.
In his 2025 Draft Guide, Matt Waldman of The Rookie Scouting Portfolio, pointed out Skattebo’s vulnerability with the ball in his hands.
Cam Skattebo fits the logic of a power back who becomes an easier target for attacks on the football. His rate of fumbling once every 94.2 touches is mid-level Committee Caliber ball security. He has lapses with security when he changes directions between the tackles.
Waldman charted Skattebo with three fumbles in 340 touches in 2024 – one per 113.33 touches.
Neither of the Giants’ other experienced running back options — Devin Singletary and Eric Gray — have been bastions of ball security, either. Singletary has 16 fumbles in 1,197 career touches. That is a fumble every 74.8 touches.
Eric Gray has six fumbles in 79 career carries, receptions and kick returns, one every 13.2 touches.
I hate to bring up his name, but Saquon Barkley has fumbled eight times in seven seasons. He has averaged one fumble every 233.375 touches. That’s ball security.
Nick Chubb has eight fumbles in 1,468 touches, one every 183.5. In two NFL seasons, Jahmyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions has three fumbles in 536 touches, one every 178.7. Alvin Kamara has 12 fumbles in 2,116 career touches, one every 176.3.
The four backs who seem most likely to touch the ball for the Giants during the 2025 season all have a history of putting the ball on the ground far too often.
Trying to rise from the ashes of a 3-14 season and facing a schedule that will require sound, clean football each week for the Giants to have a chance, that could be a problem.
