Fourth-round pick is impressing during early part of training camp
New York Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo is quickly becoming a fan favorite. His hard-charging style, infectious energy, willingess to entertain fans at training camp practice and the skills he is showing are making it that way.
Trenton Bourguet saw this coming.
“Skat is going to be Skat. It doesn’t matter whether he’s at dinner, whether he’s at the mall, on the field,” Bourguet, a former backup quarterback and teammate of Skattebo’s at Arizona State who is now on the coaching staff, told Big Blue View in the spring. “He’s always just super, super real with you. He’s going to kill you with that smile, you’re going to see him smile and laugh and joke around.
“I think that’s what makes him special is he doesn’t try to be somebody that he’s not. He’s not going to try to act different in front of the cameras or in front of his teammates. He’s going to be who he is.”
Skattebo interacts with fans before practice, often doing something silly with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, as well as after practice. He hears the fans during practice, too.
“The more support we get and the more fire we get and the more screaming we get, that’s good for us. It brings energy to us,” Skattebo said earlier this week after a scalding-hot padded practice. “And so when I come out and I do that with Dart, that’s a goofy thing.
“I want people to interact with us.”
Skattebo, though, understands when to be all business.
“It’s all fun and games,” Skattebo said. “And then when we get on the field, it’s time to lock in. That’s why you don’t see me joking around when I’m out there and people are screaming my name.
“I wish I could turn around and say what’s up to all of them, but we’re at practice and I got to focus.”
Skattebo, a fourth-round pick in the draft, has not only made an impact in the fan base. He has been making plays on the field, and bringing much-needed energy to a franchise starved for things to feel good about.
Skattebo with a big run pic.twitter.com/K58cdVOYo5
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) July 28, 2025
Skattebo played for an Arizona State team that went 3-9 in 2023 before reaching the second round of the College Football Playoffs in 2024. He knows what can happen.
“This is one of the biggest markets on the world,” Skattebo said. “If we can get the energy here and we can activate this New York Giants football this could be an incredible place to play football. If we have that MetLife Stadium sold out every game, I mean, who’s going to want to come here? And if we get everyone around the table around us and have the highest energy possible and every day training camp is filled with fans, people out here on the field are going to know people want to watch them. People are going to want to be here.”
The way Skattebo can have the most impact in energizing Giants fans is by helping the team win football games.
In his draft guide. Matt Waldman of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio wrote that Skattebo “doesn’t know his athletic limitations.”
Early in his first training camp, Skattebo has shown soft hands to catch the ball, route-running ability, instincts, and vision as a runner to find a lane to go along with his trademark ability to earn yards after contact. All of the things that attracted the Giants to the 5-foot-10, 215-pound Skattebo despite a 4.65 40-yard dash.
“He was a physical player, first and foremost,” head coach Brian Daboll said of evaluating him in college. “When you watch the tape, a hard guy to bring down when he has the ball in his hands. There’s all different shapes, sizes of running backs, different speed, different quickness, tall, short. Can they make yards when they get the ball in their hand? However that sorts itself out. Handing it to them, tossing it to them, throwing them a screen, and then how are his hands? Can you use him in the passing game? He’s got good hands, he’s got soft hands. I talked about it with (outside linebacker) Abdul (Carter) yesterday – this is another guy that you could evaluate on tape and see these instincts show up. He’s not just a line guy. He has good football instincts.”
Skattebo is most proud of his hands.
“I haven’t dropped the ball yet,” Skattebo said earlier this week. “I don’t talk about it. I don’t tell anybody. But my pride and joy is ‘don’t drop the ball.
“On game day, the ball might come your way because you don’t drop it. That’s something I take pride in, and not fumbling and not dropping the ball is the two things that I try to do best.”
Skattebo’s physicality is well-known. He was called a “carnage creator” by Lance Zierlein of NFL.com in a pre-draft scouting report.
“Coming out here and hitting people is not easy,” Skattebo said. “And it’s not the funnest thing to do, let me tell you. But embrace it, and it’s part of football. It’s what I do, it’s what I get paid to do, and I enjoy it, man.
“It’s fun for me. I wouldn’t say it’s the funnest thing to do, because I love video games and I love to do other things. But hitting people is for sure number one on top of the list when it happens. I love football, so it’s the constant build of hitting people and scoring touchdowns is the best feeling in the world.
“I just run physical every time I touch the ball.”
Skattebo would prefer to deliver a blow rather than take one.
“My favorite thing is power clean in the weight room. And that almost amplifies running somebody over. That full-body power clean through somebody’s body, that’s something I love to do,” Skattebo said.
“And, you know, I’ve kind of taught myself that same movement through a power clean is the same way you should hit somebody. I try not to take any force. It hurts when you take the force, but when you give it, you don’t feel it as much, so it’s awesome.
Running through defenders is not the only way to gain extra yards. Skattebo has an ability with his quickness and vision to not allow defenders clean shots at him, giving him a chance to bounce off tackles or make defenders miss.
Where did that vision, which not every running back possesses, come from?
“I think that’s 18 years of playing football, just growing up playing over and over and over again,” Skattebo said. And then going through probably the last eight years of my life has been really working, filling the hole, seeing guys. And in college we really emphasized making sure you’re getting the right reads.
“So seeing that and just constantly working it throughout the individual period is something that you just feel throughout the days. And as you see it on film, now you know the next cut needs to happen instead of this cut. So, I mean, it’s just a natural thing.”
Skattebo is seeming more and more like a natural fit for the Giants. Early indications ar ehe could be fun to watch.