Tyrone Tracy Jr. Is on the Giants' Roster Bubble With the Cutdown Deadline Hours Away

Tyrone Tracy Jr. led the Giants in rushing last season. He may not be on the roster Monday morning. New York lists Cam Skattebo as its starting running back on the most recent unofficial depth chart, signed Najee Harris earlier this month, and has watched Devin Singletary outplay Tracy through three preseason games. With the league-wide cut to 53 players due Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern, Tracy has become one of the most fantasy-relevant bubble players in the NFL.

He also left Friday night's preseason finale against the Jets in the second quarter to be evaluated for a concussion, which he cleared. Before exiting he had carried four times for 37 yards and a touchdown, easily his best work of the summer. Whether that was enough to matter is the question the Giants answer this weekend.

How a 740-yard back ended up here

Tracy rushed for roughly 740 yards at 4.2 yards per carry as the Giants' primary back last season, which is a perfectly respectable line for a fifth-round convert who was a wide receiver in college. It was also not enough to hold the job.

New York drafted Skattebo and handed him the early-down work. Then it signed Harris, who is working back from a 2025 Achilles tear but whom head coach John Harbaugh has described as not needing much more time. Singletary, meanwhile, has been the best pass protector in the room, which is the skill that decides who dresses on Sunday.

Tracy's preseason did not help. He allowed a sack and a significant hit on quarterback Jaxson Dart, and he fumbled in the second exhibition. For a back whose value proposition is third-down utility rather than volume, those are the two errors that get you cut.

The mechanics of Sunday, and why they matter for fantasy

Every club must reduce to 53 players by Sunday evening. Players with fewer than four accrued seasons are subject to waivers, meaning any of the other 31 teams can claim their contract; waiver claims are due Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern. Vested veterans with four or more accrued seasons are released outright and become free agents immediately.

Tracy falls into the first category. If the Giants waive him, he does not choose his next stop. A team with a thin backfield claims him and inherits his contract, and he lands somewhere with an actual opportunity or he does not land at all.

That is the fantasy upside in this story. A back with proven NFL production and a rookie-deal salary is exactly the profile teams claim, and the backfields most likely to make that claim are the ones that lost bodies in August. The list of teams that have burned through running backs this month is not short.

Fantasy fallout across the Giants backfield

Skattebo is the clear beneficiary and the only Giants back worth a meaningful draft pick. He is listed as the starter, he handles the early-down work, and he has the goal-line role in an offense that should be better than last year's with Dart in his second season and Isaiah Likely added at tight end. He is a volume-based RB2 with real touchdown equity.

Harris is the contingency play. If he is genuinely past the Achilles rehab, he is the most experienced back in the room and the one likeliest to absorb work if Skattebo misses time. That makes him a late-round handcuff with standalone-value upside, which is more than most backups offer.

Singletary is a roster-only player in fantasy terms, valuable to the Giants and invisible in your lineup.

Tracy is a waiver-wire watch. Do not spend a draft pick on him. Spend a claim on him Tuesday if he lands somewhere that needs a starter.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's model does not value running backs by name, it values them by projected touches inside a specific offense, and that is why the Giants' room grades out as one clear asset and three roughly interchangeable ones. Skattebo's projection is carried almost entirely by opportunity share rather than efficiency, which is the healthiest kind of running back projection to hold.

The model is more skeptical of Harris than the market. Backs returning from an Achilles tear have historically posted below-baseline efficiency in their first season back, and that penalty applies before any consideration of how the Giants split work. He is worth a late pick as insurance, not as a bet.

On Tracy specifically, the model's read is that his 2025 production was a function of volume in a bad offense rather than a signal about his talent. That is precisely the kind of player who becomes valuable again the moment he is handed volume somewhere else, and worthless if he is not.

What to do in your league

Draft Skattebo where the market has him and do not reach past it. Take Harris in the last two rounds if you have the roster spot. Leave Singletary and Tracy on the board.

Then set an alert for Monday afternoon. Waiver results are the single best source of free fantasy value in the NFL calendar, and this year's class of waived running backs is deeper than usual because so many teams reshuffled their backfields in August.

What is next

The Giants have to decide whether four running backs is worth a roster spot they need elsewhere. Harbaugh has kept four in the past, which is the argument for Tracy surviving. The counterargument is that Singletary blocks better, Harris costs more, and Skattebo is not coming off the field.

Either way, the answer arrives Sunday evening, and the fantasy consequences arrive Monday at one.