Much of the offseason negativity around New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo focused on his perceived lack of effectiveness or his alleged poor grades in less accessible advanced metrics.
The narrative is about to change, though not how Skattebo probably prefers.
After only fumbling once as a rookie, Skattebo has already coughed up the ball three times. The good news is that the Giants have prevented two of those plays from turning into turnovers, but that doesn’t excuse his lack of ball security — and the more Skattebo fumbles, the more likely the chance John Harbaugh and Joe Schoen are to target a running back in next spring’s draft.
New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo has a fumbling problem
Let’s take a second and think about a hypothetical situation. If you were told that an unnamed player was likely to fumble once every 19 touches, how much would you truly trust them moving forward? Take their name and résumé out of the equation, and focus on that statistic, because that’s exactly where Skattebo is through 57 touches.
You can recover from a bad read or a missed opportunity. But turnovers have derailed — or even outright ended — many careers prematurely, and Giants fans are seeing that firsthand with Tyrone Tracy Jr., who has been limited to three touches through three games. Any hopes he had of winning over Harbaugh and Matt Nagy died when he fumbled in Week 1 against the Cowboys.
Athlon Sports’ Luke Easterling and NFL Media’s Lance Zierlein both shared their concerns about Skattebo’s fumbles in pre-draft scouting reports. Let’s use the aforementioned example again: Skattebo only coughed the ball up once on 125 touches last year, which sounds far better and more manageable. Most of the bell-cow starting running backs fumbled two or three times on at least 300 touches, so that tracks.
Although Harbaugh hasn’t hinted we’ll see less of Skattebo moving forward, it’ll be hard to justify keeping him in the starting lineup. Najee Harris finally worked his way into the rotation last weekend, and no one should be surprised to see him earn the lion’s share of the running back carries against the Bears on Sunday. The ex-Steelers standout rushed for 52 yards on nine carries and, most importantly, didn’t fumble.
As for Devin Singletary, he was a healthy scratch in Week 3, and it’s unclear whether he’ll suit up against the Bears. The former Conference USA MVP had 10 touches for 38 yards (16 rushing, 22 receiving) and a touchdown in Week 1.
After a summer of Giants fans expecting great things from Tracy and Skattebo, it’d be something if neither is a major factor by November.
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