Cam Skattebo reclaims role as Giants' feature back after tough injury recovery

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It wasn't long after getting emotional during last Sunday's national anthem that the New York Giants' Cam Skattebo raced around the left end untouched and into the end zone before launching immediately into a cartwheel and his trademark backflip. The second-year running back had scored the Giants' first touchdown of the season 10-plus months after a gruesome leg injury against the Dallas Cowboys.

He was back. So was the backflip, despite some offseason controversies.

"I've been saying it for about a month I was gonna do a backflip when I scored my first touchdown," Skattebo said after the 28-20 win over the Cowboys. "I might do it here or there throughout the year. You won't see if every single time, but I'm gonna make up something else now. Give the kids something else to do."

Just like that, it's business as usual for the bruising running back. Skattebo rushed for 81 yards on 18 carries and played his usual physical brand of football. He ran over Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown on multiple occasions and had the game-clinching run late in the fourth quarter.

Watching him run Sunday night, it was almost as if Skattebo had never suffered an open tibia fracture and ruptured ligament in his dislocated right ankle. New coach John Harbaugh was impressed.

"I think it probably started with [Skattebo]. I mean, he was running really, really hard. Really, really well," Harbaugh said. "Set the tempo, brought the energy, juice."

This is what he worked so hard to get back for. He's a football player.

Not that it was all so easy. Skattebo was stuck on his couch for the first few months of his rehab. He admitted contemplating retirement. But the 24-year-old was back on the field practicing in the spring and full-go for the start of training camp this summer.

"It was tough. It was tough because I had a lot of uncertainty and each process that happened, when one thing was hurting and it started feeling better, something else would start hurting," Skattebo said. "And over time, it got better and better, and different things popped up. So, depending on what I did in rehab, something else was going to pop up and bother me.

"I had to work through all those little kinks and make sure that everything was feeling good. And I still have a little bit of soreness here and there with certain cutting and over time. But I mean, I feel great, man. I feel like what I've done in the PT room has put me in a good, successful position to be able to continue to play this game."

Skattebo looked great in Week 1. He was the Giants' feature back, starting the game and handling a majority of the workload. When they needed a big play late, they turned to him.

The 2025 fourth-round pick played 41 of 63 offensive snaps. He handled 69% of the rushing workload for the running backs.

"I was pleased. It was physical. It was downhill. I enjoyed it," Skattebo said. "I'm not too sore."

Skattebo did his best to downplay it all afterward. All the attention in the lead-up to the game was on wide receiver Malik Nabers, who was returning from a torn ACL suffered four weeks before Skattebo's injury last year.

It was the first game back from serious injury for both. It shouldn't be taken lightly what they overcame to return.

"I mean, I got a little emotional during the national anthem, but I think the big thing was [Nabers'] injury," Skattebo said. "Obviously, mine was gruesome. But his was such a long process and such a process because of an ACL. It's a little harder to come back from that. And all props to him for grinding this whole offseason.

"We were alongside each other in the training room, and I started to get a lot better faster because of the different injury. And his was a little bit slower of an incline. I used to tell him all the time, me and [quarterback] Jaxson [Dart] would tell him, we'll meet you in Week 1. ... I look back at my injury like I was supposed to come back and I was supposed to play Game 1, so it was really cool to see him come back and actually do it."

Now the Giants look to build on it in a Week 2 "Monday Night Football" matchup with the Los Angeles Rams (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN). Skattebo as the Giants' feature running back. Nabers as the No. 1 receiver.

Their workloads should increase as they get back to full strength. That was Nabers' first game since the injury. Skattebo appeared in one preseason game this summer.

But this was different. This was the final hurdle cleared.

"I felt like myself again," Skattebo said. "And the guys, the training staff, the coaches, they've understood where I've been at. They understand who I am. They take my words for what they take them for. They trust who I am. If I'm sore one day, they cut me some slack. So I appreciate them and am going to continue to kick ass and work my ass off."