Tyrone Tracy, NFL: New York Giants at Miami Dolphins
Tyrone Tracy, NFL: New York Giants at Miami Dolphins
Tyrone Tracy Jr. put the ball on the ground on 2nd-and-4 from the Miami 10 Saturday, slipped on the wet grass, and watched a Dolphins defender fall on it in the red zone. It was the second straight preseason game the Giants’ 2024 leading rusher handed the coaching staff a reason to worry.
A back who topped 1,000 scrimmage yards in each of his first two seasons should not be sweating a roster cut, yet that might be exactly where Tracy sits with the Giants two weeks from trimming to 53. The backfield around him got deeper, his margin for error got thinner, and the timing could not be worse.
The backfield filled up while Tracy stood still
Najee Harris signed a one-year deal worth roughly $1.2 million after the preseason opener, adding a former Pro Bowl runner with four 1,000-yard seasons to a room that already had a clear pecking order.
Najee Harris, NFL: Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders
Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Cam Skattebo took the first handoff last Saturday as the presumed lead back, Devin Singletary answered with a 40-yard screen against Minnesota and a strong camp, and Harris arrives with the Greg Roman connection from their year together with the Chargers. Harris did not suit up against Miami as he works back from a torn Achilles, but his presence reshapes the math behind Skattebo.
Eric Gray got eight carries for 20 yards against the Vikings and did little to separate, which tells you how far down the depth chart the competition now runs. The Giants can realistically keep four backs. Skattebo is a lock, Harris seems to be too, Singletary has played his way into the conversation, and that leaves one seat for a player the front office once counted on as its RB1.
Two weeks, two mistakes the staff cannot unsee
Tracy whiffed on a pass-protection assignment in the preseason opener that let a free rusher hit Jaxson Dart, then coughed up the ball in the red zone a week later. Ball security was already the knock on him: he fumbled five times as a rookie in 2024, once every 46 touches, before cutting that number to just one fumble in 2025. The Miami giveaway reopened a file the Giants thought he had closed, and it did so in front of a new coaching staff that did not draft him.
A big hit from Jay Ward to get the sack on Jaxson Dart 😳
(Via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/3jw4uaoLt3
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) August 15, 2026
A back who cannot keep Dart clean loses third-down snaps to Skattebo and Singletary, and a back who cannot be trusted with the football in the red zone loses the short-yardage work to Harris. Per NorthJersey’s Art Stapleton, the two miscues have left it an open question whether Tracy lands on the bubble or on the trade market. Neither is the sentence a former leading rusher expects to read in late August.
The tape still says starter, which is what makes this strange
Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. runs against the Cowboys
Tyrone Tracy Jr. runs against the Cowboys.
Tracy ran for 839 yards on 192 carries as a rookie, added 38 catches, and earned a 69.6 PFF rushing grade while leading the team in rushing. He followed it with 740 rushing yards and 288 receiving yards in 2025, capping the year with a career-high 159 scrimmage yards against Dallas in Week 18. Two straight four-plus-yard-per-carry seasons and back-to-back 1,000-yard scrimmage totals are a starter’s résumé, not a camp body’s.
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Season Rush Att Rush Yds Yards/Carry Scrimmage Yds Fumbles
2024 192 839 4.4 1,123 5
2025 176 740 4.2 1,028 1
Tracy posted a 40.9 PFF receiving grade as a rookie despite entering the league as a converted wideout, and that number is the sticking point. A passing-down back who struggles to protect and secure the ball becomes a luxury once a healthy Harris and a reliable Singletary are on the roster. His production says he belongs; his preseason says the Giants are no longer sure where.
The Giants have a decision they did not expect to make
A running back who cleared 1,000 scrimmage yards in each of his first two seasons is a genuine asset, and if the Giants decide four backs plus Harris’s recovery timeline complicate the room, Tracy is the kind of player who returns real value on the trade market rather than the waiver wire. What he cannot do is give the staff another red-zone fumble or another missed blitz pickup before Friday’s finale against the Jets. The talent was never the question. The next ten days are.