Last Sunday, the Giants demoted running back Cam Skattebo due to his ball security issues, including a lost fumble in Week 5 that may have cost the team a win. Skattebo did not receive a single carry in New York’s Week 6 loss to the Saints, but per ESPN’s Ian Rapoport, the second-year pro will reprise his role as the lead back in Week 7.
Veteran Najee Harris earned the start in the New Orleans and tallied just two yards on four carries. After that performance, and after speaking out against the Giants’ four-back rotation, Harris was released.
Tyrone Tracy was the most productive member of the Giants’ RB room in Week 6, as he posted 18 yards and a touchdown on six carries and added two catches for 27 yards and a touchdown through the air. Regardless of whether Skattebo or Tracy is listed as the starter in Week 7, ESPN’s Jordan Raanan expects their carries to be split fairly evenly. Presumably, Devin Singletary will continue to operate in a tertiary capacity.
After the loss to the Saints, head coach John Harbaugh decried the fact that none of his RBs had stepped up to lay claim to a bellcow workload. Despite that, the 3-2-1 Giants presently sit atop the NFC East, and there has been plenty of chatter to suggest they will look to improve their running back situation prior to the November 10 trade deadline. They have been named as a possible suitor for Colts star Jonathan Taylor, and both Connor Hughes of SNY.tv and ESPN’s Dan Graziano expect them to explore the RB market.
It’s not often that a team like the Giants, who lost their starting quarterback for the season in Week 2, becomes a deadline buyer. But given the state of their division, New York could be exactly that, particularly if QB J.J. McCarthy starts to live up to his status as a top-10 draft pick.
New York acquired McCarthy from the Vikings at the end of September, shortly after it was revealed Jaxson Dart would miss the remainder of the campaign. Jameis Winston served as the Giants’ starting signal-caller while McCarthy got up to speed, but he did not do enough to hold off his younger counterpart.
McCarthy relieved Winston in the fourth quarter of the Saints contest and flashed in a big way, completing 11 of 21 passes for 243 yards, a touchdown, and an interception while rushing two times for 26 yards. His efforts earned him a Week 7 start.
As Hughes writes, it will take a lot (such as an NFC Championship Game appearance) for the Giants to even consider the possibility of McCarthy replacing Dart as the club’s quarterback of the future, but Hughes is just one of the reporters to say the Michigan product will not be on a short leash.
Although Harbaugh coyly replied “life is day-to-day, minute-to-minute” when asked about McCarthy’s grip on the QB1 job, both Rapoport and NFL on Prime’s James Palmer expect McCarthy to get an extended look. Palmer (video link) cites McCarthy’s Dart-like mobility as one of the reasons New York acquired him in the first place.
Like McCarthy, the Colts’ Anthony Richardson is a mobile signal-caller who fell out of favor with the team that drafted him and once considered him its long-term QB solution. However, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler says the Giants never contacted Indianapolis about the possibility of acquiring Richardson.
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