Giants Running Back Depth Chart: Skattebo Leads, Tracy on IR, Desrosiers Added

Updated Thursday, Oct. 29 through Week 7. This page is updated as the Giants' running back room changes.

The Giants have three running backs on the 53-man roster: Cam Skattebo, Devin Singletary and Gregory Desrosiers, an undrafted rookie they signed Oct. 27 from the Los Angeles Chargers' practice squad. Fullback Patrick Ricard is also on the 53. Phil Mafah is the only running back on the practice squad; fullback Grant Finley is also on it.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. is on injured reserve. He hurt his hamstring in the second quarter of the 27-21 overtime win at Houston on Oct. 25, after scoring on a 2-yard run in the first. General manager Joe Schoen said Oct. 27, "This won't be something that's going to be long-term."

The Giants are 4-2-1 and on their bye. They play at Philadelphia on Nov. 8. The trade deadline is Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET.

Week 7 at Houston

Skattebo ran 17 times for a career-high 124 yards and a touchdown. He played 37 of 66 offensive snaps, a week after he played six snaps and had no carries against New Orleans. Singletary played 19 snaps and ran five times for 41 yards. Tracy played 10 snaps before he was hurt. Mafah was not elevated from the practice squad.

The backs decided the game in overtime. Skattebo ran 42 yards up the middle to the Houston 30, and Singletary scored on the next play on a 30-yard run. Before those two runs, the backs had 26 carries for 108 yards.

Over the whole game, 46% of the backs' carries were successful by the nflverse expected-points model, meaning they added expected points. Through Week 6, the rate had been 31%.

The backs averaged 3.7 yards before contact per carry at Houston, by Pro Football Reference's charting. Their best game before that was 2.3, in Week 5 at Washington. Skattebo averaged 4.9 before contact against the Texans.

Skattebo was flagged for unnecessary roughness on a first-quarter run for lowering his helmet. Coach John Harbaugh said Oct. 26 the call surprised him. "Skatt runs low. You have to run low," he said.

The numbers through Week 7

Skattebo has 98 carries for 418 yards, 4.3 per carry, with two rushing touchdowns, and has played 54% of the offensive snaps. Singletary has 18 carries for 80 yards. Tracy has 19 for 55. Najee Harris had 31 for 99 before his release. Together the backs average 3.9 yards per carry.

By the expected-points model, 34% of the running backs' carries have been successful. On all of the Giants' designed runs by players other than quarterbacks, which also include receivers' runs, the success rate is 35%. That ranks 27th of 32 teams, up from 31st after Week 6. The rate for all teams on those runs is 40%.

Skattebo averages 2.2 yards before contact per carry. Across all running backs in the same data, the figure is 2.3. Of the backs with at least 40 carries, 19 average more than Skattebo. After Week 6, 32 did.

How the room got here

The Giants released Harris on Oct. 20, two days after he played 11 snaps in a 34-27 loss to New Orleans in which the Giants used four backs. Through three quarters of that game, the backs ran 10 times for 15 yards, and none of those carries was successful.

On Oct. 19, the day after Harris said he was frustrated with the rotation, Harbaugh said he would like a lead back: "A Derrick Henry circumstance or a Saquon Barkley circumstance or whatever it might be." He added, "Our run game hasn't earned that yet, and none of those guys have."

Harbaugh said Oct. 23 that "it's hard to carry four backs" and that the release was "nothing that he did or didn't do."

What the Giants have said since Week 7

At his bye-week news conference Oct. 27, Schoen said Tracy's injury does not change the team's approach at running back. "I still have a lot of confidence in Skatt and Motor," he said, referring to Skattebo and Singletary. He called Mafah a practice squad back "who we like."

On the deadline in general, Schoen said the Giants would look around the league at what is available and what it would cost. He said the team does not have a fourth- or fifth-round pick "right now."

The trade talk

ESPN's Dan Graziano wrote Oct. 21 that the Giants would "love to alter things at running back, apparently," and that "it wouldn't be shocking to see them add someone from the outside or give Tyrone Tracy Jr. a bigger chance." He cited no sources and named no outside target. In the same column, he laid out the contract of Colts back Jonathan Taylor as a hypothetical for any acquiring team, without connecting it to the Giants.

The New York Post's Ryan Dunleavy wrote Oct. 23 about whether the Giants would go after Taylor and where else they could find a lead back.

The Athletic's Jonathan Jones reported Oct. 24 that the Colts were not entertaining Taylor trade talks, "at least not yet," and that "sources believe the New York Giants and Vikings could be potential suitors for Taylor if he's available for trade."

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler wrote Oct. 28, in an ESPN ranking of trade-deadline candidates, "Teams I've talked to aren't totally sold that Indianapolis will trade Taylor despite heavy interest -- at least not yet." That ranking listed five teams as fits for Taylor. The Giants were not one of them.

The Colts traded guard Quenton Nelson to Seattle on Oct. 27 for a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick.

Our read: the Giants' moves since the Texans game point to the backs they already have. They replaced Tracy with a rookie off another team's practice squad, and Schoen said the injury does not change the approach at the position. Skattebo had his best game in the week the backs averaged their most yards before contact. The Athletic's report depends on Indianapolis making Taylor available. For how deadline deals work, see our trade deadline explainer.

Contracts

Open questions

• Whether Desrosiers is active at Philadelphia on Nov. 8, or whether Mafah is elevated from the practice squad.
• When Tracy returns. The team has not given a timeline beyond Schoen's comment.
• Whether the Giants add a back before Nov. 10.