Big Blue View
Fumbles, drops marred otherwise excellent rookie season for Tracy
After fumbling five times in 230 touches — once every 46 touches — and dropping five passes (9.4%) of his targets in 2024, New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy knows that he needs to be better handling the football in 2025.
“Obviously ball security was a huge thing for me last year. I had too many on the ground, so that was a big thing for me,” Tracy said on Thursday as the Giants continued their OTAs.
Tracy has been making a conscious effort to improve his grip on the ball.
“It starts on the football field. Every time I’m holding the ball, or I get the ball, whatever it is, making sure I’m carrying it the right way,” Tracy said. “And then I also bought, I don’t know if y’all know what it is, but it’s a little grip strengthener off Amazon that I use every night. It just helps me. Also, it just makes sure that I’m being fundamentally sound when I’m holding the ball as well. So again, just take your coaching and the meeting room to the field.”
Tracy led the Giants with 839 rushing yards as a rookie and had 1,123 total yards from scrimmage, making it an overall successful year for the 2024 fifth-round pick. He is hoping to build on what he did a year ago.
“I think consistency is the best thing that shows up in the NFL,” he said. “When you look at all of the great running backs, they’re very consistent year after year after year. So that’s what I want to be. I want to be one of the great New York Giants running backs that’s come through here, but it starts with consistency, and that’s going to start at practice every day.”
Tracy will be joined in the Giants’ backfield this year by fourth-round pick Cam Skattebo, a player with an aggressive, hard-charging style who used to run into telephone poles for fun as a child.
“I’ve got my speed and elusiveness, but Skattebo, he’s got a little bit of everything,” Tracy said. “I watched his film, obviously, I’ve seen him play. I think we’ve all seen him play. That boy has got some power to him. I think that’s one of his strengths – is his strength, really. His power, the way he runs the ball. He runs angry, he runs hard, he runs physical, some of the things that Dabs loves. But again, I think that we’re two different backs, but I think we complement each other really well.”
The Giants have a new quarterback this year in Russell Wilson, entering his 14th NFL season. During a recent dinner with a number of players that Wilson paid for, the veteran QB introduced the young running back to a new world of food.
“I‘m not a big ‘splurger,’ but he definitely hooked us up to say the least. He hooked us up....
