Giants' Cam Skattebo, meet the MetLife crowd: Bruising rookie RB already a fan favorite

Giants fans already have fallen in love with Cam Skattebo. On Sunday, they finally will get to meet him in person.

The rookie running back who has lowered his shoulder into the hearts of the region and rammed his way into a featured role in the offense will make his MetLife Stadium debut on Sunday night against Kansas City. And in a prime-time game that won’t be short on star power — on or off the field — Skattebo has a chance to steal the spotlight again.

He’s already become something of an icon for his bruising ballcarrying and percussive pass protection, a one-time winner and two-time finalist for the “Angry Runs Scepter” that NFL Network awards weekly. 

Angry Runs scepter hand delivered by @KyleBrandt 🤝 pic.twitter.com/CWnrBaLTH8

— New York Giants (@Giants) September 11, 2025

Last week in Dallas he did the unthinkable and overshadowed the anticipated debut of fellow rookie Jaxson Dart, taking a handoff on the quarterback’s first snap and running 24 yards, passing through the Cowboys like campfire-fried beans from the chuckwagon. A play later, he scored his first NFL touchdown on a 1-yard run. He finished the game with a team-high 11 carries for 45 rumbling rushing yards.

On a team that added lots of high-profile draft picks with Dart, Abdul Carter and Darius Alexander — not to mention Marcus Mbow, who stepped in last week and played most of the game as a strong left tackle — it is Skattebo, the 5-11, 215-pound fourth-rounder from Arizona State, who has become the most productive rookie on the team.

And now he is coming to his new home, in front of his new fans, hoping to give the 0-2 Giants a whole new beginning to their season.

“This is going to be the start of the next chapter,” Skattebo told Newsday. “This Giants team is going to turn around and this is going to be a great football team, at least while I’m here.”

Who’s brave enough to tell him otherwise?

Skattebo said he isn’t surprised the way folks here have embraced him in such a short time. New Yorkers may like things big — think skyscrapers, events and even the name Giants itself — but they also like grittiness and toughness. This city is the playground of the fearless, and those who abide by that mentality in any sport often find fame here.

“I give everything I have and people are starting to see that,” he said. “They’re seeing it a little bit and it’s only going to become more and more as I continue playing.”

But Skattebo also has that undersized, underappreciated thing going for him,  as Joe Morris did back in the day or when Ahmad Bradshaw (who also wore 44, Skattebo's number) pounded defenders more recently. His square, glass-chewing jawline and short but unstyled hair make him look as if he would have fit right into any era. He could very well have been in “The Violent World of Sam Huff” . . . and probably made it even more vicious.

Heck, even his coaches and teammates get a charge out of watching him run. Go find the clips of their reactions after his touchdown last weekend. They were giddier than he was.

The bench was HYPE for Skattebo 🫡 pic.twitter.com/0vC4XQGHOs

— New York Giants (@Giants) September 16, 2025

“He brings it with such energy and enthusiasm that he continues to kind of ignite guys around him as well,” offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said.

Added coach Brian Daboll: “I think he’s a guy who loves the game of football and he plays it the right way.”

If Steve Sabol and Quentin Tarantino had ever made a movie together it would have starred Cam Skattebo.

“It gives us a spark, it gives us juice,” said veteran tight end Chris Manhertz. “He’s the kind of person who not only looks for contact but he finds joy in it.”

That mentality didn’t come from watching football while growing up in Rio Linda, California. Skattebo said he hardly ever tuned in to the sport, so it’s not as if he was dissecting film of Adrian Peterson or Derrick Henry or anyone else. He was too busy getting his butt kicked by his older brother, Leo, a former fullback at Bowling Green who went about 6-1 and 262 when he played, and his father, also Leo, who played at Colorado State when he was younger.

“I got bullied by my brother and my dad playing in the backyard and on the carpet and stuff,” Cam said. “That anger built up inside of me and it comes out every time I touch the field.”

Skattebo flashed that in college, to the delight of Arizona State fans and often enough to catch the eye of Giants scouts, but this is the NFL, and it’s still a surprisingly solid strategy. So what does it feel like to have grown-man defenders bounce off of you?

“I don’t even feel it, to be honest,” Skattebo said. “Half the time if I get hit and stay up, I’m just on to the next man, and hopefully I don’t get tackled by him.”

Playing that way — not to mention talking that way and getting so much praise for it all — could put a bit of a target on Skattebo’s back. NFL defenders are a prideful bunch, and there  undoubtedly is a safety or linebacker who can’t wait to put the Angry Runs kid on his back.

To which Skattebo says, quite predictably: Bring it!

“I’ve been a target my whole life,” he said. “Everybody I have ever played against knows I am a physical back, so you have to try to stop it for four quarters. I’m going to run how I run for four quarters no matter how hard I get hit. When someone hits me hard, most people buckle and they don’t want to get hit again, but I’m going right back at you with the same amount of force, if not more. I’ve never been scared. If there is a target on my back, so what? I still have a job to do and a football to run.”

And, on Sunday, a home crowd to keep winning over.

Andrew Thomas injury update

Giants offensive left tackle Andrew Thomas will be a game-time decision on Sunday against Kansas City, coach Brian Daboll said on Friday. Thomas had “another good day” of practice on Thursday and is listed as questionable for the game after being doubtful the previous two weeks. He has been out since undergoing foot surgery last October. “He’s done more than he’s done the last few weeks leading up to it,” Daboll said before practice.

Thomas told reporters after practice on Friday that he is “feeling a lot better” than he did last week and had practiced three days in a row for the first time. “Starting to build a volume, get my confidence back,” he said. “So it’s exciting, for sure.”