Cam Skattebo moved well in individual drills on Monday as he continues working his way back from a gruesome ankle injury. He took another step on Tuesday.
On the first 11-on-11 of the offseason practice, Skattebo took a handoff. It marked the first time he has participated in team drills since a dislocated right ankle, a fractured fibula and a ruptured deltoid ligament in an Oct. 26 game against the Giants.
Skattebo expects to be full go for the start of training camp in late July.
He rushed for 410 yards and five touchdowns on 101 carries in the eight games he played last season before his injury. He also had 24 catches for 207 yards and two touchdowns.
Giants Clips
Good football coaches are also good politicians. They know, as evidenced by the photo attached to this post, the importance of supporting other local teams during a postseason run. They also know what to say, and what not to say, when it comes to sensitive subjects.
On Monday, a question was posed to Giants coach John Harbaugh about the recent placement of grass at MetLife Stadium for the World Cup — to be removed and replaced with artificial turf that the players don’t like.
“Oh, you’re going to try to draw me in to the turf versus grass,” Harbaugh said. “And Roger [Goodell] is gonna call me up and he’s gonna get mad at me because I’m probably not gonna say what he wants me to say, so. That’s all I’m gonna say. That’s all I’m gonna say. It’s a good surface out there. It’s a good artificial surface, I’ll say that. How’s that?”
Harbaugh didn’t need to say what he wanted to say. Beyond the fact that what he would have said is obvious, Harbaugh has previously spoken about his preference for football on grass.
In 2015, when the Ravens switched from turf to grass, Harbaugh made his feelings about the move clear.
“It kind of epitomizes what Baltimore is all about, the history of football in Baltimore,” Harbaugh said. “To me, a Baltimore football team should be playing on a grass field in Baltimore.”
The sentiment is true, regardless of the city. After all, it was the Baltimore Colts against Harbaugh’s New York Giants on grass in the 1958 NFL Championship, known as the Greatest Game Ever Played.
Beyond tradition, the players strongly prefer it. As Devin McCourty said on PFT Live, coaches do, too. It’s the owners who want to have a cheaper surface that makes it easier to host events other than football games when the football team isn’t using the stadium for football.
The fact that Harbaugh anticipated a phone call from the Commissioner perfectly captures the current state of the debate. It has become not a question of what’s right for the players. It’s a collective bargaining issue. The NFL will hold the rope on turf, if only to get the best possible concession from the NFL Players Association if/when all stadiums embrace grass.
And the powers-that-be won’t want anyone from management saying anything that will weaken the ability to maximize the return the owners receive if/when they finally show proper respect for the players — and when they decide to properly protect their investment in them.
The Giants’ move to hire John Harbaugh as their head coach in January sparked hopes that the team will be able to return to being contender and that feeling has not flagged as the team nears the end of its offseason program.
This week’s mandatory minicamp will mark that end and the Giants will be weeks away from playing their first game under Harbaugh once they get back together for training camp. Good vibes about what’s to come will likely remain in place once the Giants get back together, but edge rusher Brian Burns offered a reminder about the fleeting nature of such feelings.
“Everybody is excited right now,” Burns said, via a transcript from the team. “Every other team is excited. Everybody is 0-0. They’re seeing the pieces they have, flying through OTAs. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel this is a little different, I was a little excited, and I expect highly of this team. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that. But at the end of the day, like I say, you’ve gotta prove it. It’s [not] just about being happy and optimistic. You’ve gotta get on the field and you’ve got to prove it against another team and impose your will on them.”
One need only look at recent Giants history to back up Burns’s statement. Harbaugh is the fifth permanent head coach since Tom Coughlin was dispatched and each of the others created reason to think things had turned a corner, but two winning seasons in 10 years makes it clear that reality has topped fantasy time and again for the Giants.
Reports from Monday’s Giants minicamp practice concerning edge rusher Abdul Carter may have provided a few scares, but there don’t appear to be any long-term fears for the 2025 first-round pick.
Carter limped off the field during practice after having his left foot and ankle looked at by trainers. He went to the locker room for further evaluation, but the word from the team is that Carter will be just fine.
Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters at a post-practice press conference that it looks like Carter twisted his ankle during the practice. Harbaugh added that the injury “doesn’t look serious.”
Carter had 43 tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries during his rookie season with the Giants.
The Giants got an injury scare from edge rusher Abdul Carter at their first minicamp practice on Monday, but there was a more positive update on the medical front for another of their 2024 draft picks.
Videos from media members at the practice show running back Cam Skattebo participating in drills. Skattebo can be seen moving well while taking handoffs and catching passes down the field in the shared clips.
It’s the first time that Skattebo has done that kind of work during an offseason practice open to the media. He said a couple of weeks ago that he is “a little ways out” from being 100 percent after last season’s ankle injury, but expected to be there when the team gets to training camp.
In eight games before his injury, Skattebo had 101 carries for 410 yards and five touchdowns along with 24 catches for 207 yards and two scores.
Sean McDermott has said that he’s planning on spending his 2026 speaking with people about leadership in order to grow as a coach.
While many of those visits have been with folks he didn’t know, one on Monday was a little different.
According to multiple reporters on the scene, McDermott was in New Jersey on Monday, attending Giants minicamp.
McDermott walked on the field with New York General Manager Joe Schoen, who previously worked with McDermott with the Bills.
McDermott also previously worked with now-Giants head coach John Harbaugh, as they were both assistants with the Eagles under head coach Andy Reid.
As head coach of the Bills, McDermott accumulated a 98-50 regular-season record and an 8-8 postseason record in his nine seasons.
He is likely to be one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the cycle once the calendar flips to January.
Giants edge rusher Abdul Carter suffered an injury that forced him off the field at today’s mandatory minicamp practice.
Carter had his left shoe and sock off and was examined by trainers, limped off the outdoor practice field and into the Giants’ indoor facility. according to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
Carter is heading into his second season with the Giants, who drafted him with the third overall pick last year. He had a solid rookie season, starting slowly but coming on strong down the stretch, and finishing fifth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.
Jordan Raanan of ESPN reports that the Giants’ initial belief is that Carter is OK.
Odell Beckham spent his first five seasons with the Giants. He insists he never wanted to leave, but in the 2019 offseason, the Giants sent him to the Browns in a blockbuster trade.
Eight years and three other teams later, Beckham has returned to where it all started when the Giants used a first-round pick on him.
Beckham called being back with the Giants, with whom he signed a free agent deal this week, “a pretty surreal feeling.”
“Just the way that I had to walk away, it was just unsettling in my soul, in my spirit,’’ Beckham said, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “It’s not who I am. I’ve never surrendered or quit or felt like I’ve given up on myself or anything. It just wasn’t sitting with me well.’’
Beckham expressed gratitude to co-owner John Mara and the organization for giving him another opportunity. Beckham has not played an NFL game since Dec. 8, 2024, with the Dolphins, as he sat out the 2025 season.
He has played only 23 games over the past four seasons.
“This family brought me in; they gave me my first opportunity,” Beckham said. “Something I’ll forever be grateful for. So many amazing memories. My life was here. I never thought I’d be anywhere else. To even have the opportunity to put a jersey and a helmet back on – I actually left one of my helmets here, it had dust on it. — it was good to see.
“But yeah, I want to do it for that family, for this building, for Giants Nation. This is my squad. It’s just going to come with everyday work, being the best me I can be.”
Beckham is 33, hasn’t made a Pro Bowl since 2016 and hasn’t had a 1,000-yard season since 2019. This is likely his last chance, even if he’s not looking at it like that.
“I look at it like this: God has given me one more opportunity to play,” Beckham said. “Whatever I do with that is that. I’m not saying this is my only year and I’m not saying that I’ve got five more for you. I’m just looking at it like this is my opportunity now. We’ll see where it goes from there.”
Russell Wilson has made it official.
In a social-media video posted on Wednesday, Wilson announced his retirement from the NFL and confirmed that he will be working for CBS, on The NFL Today.
A third-round pick in 2012, Wilson won the starting job as a rookie, beating out free-agent arrival Matt Flynn.
Wilson made it to the Pro Bowl nine times in 10 seasons with the Seahawks. Traded to the Broncos in 2022, he had two seasons in Denver, one in Pittsburgh, and one with the Giants.
The Jets had interest in adding Wilson as a backup to Geno Smith, who once backed up Wilson in Seattle. Ultimately, Wilson chose TV over continuing to play.
In the years to come, Wilson’s Hall of Fame candidacy will be debated. Former Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty said on Tuesday’s PFT Live that Wilson was in the second tier of NFL quarterbacks during McCourty’s career, which largely overlapped with Wilson’s.
Still, Wilson had a strong run in the NFL. He defied his size, won a Super Bowl, and was the highest-paid player in the NFL, twice.
Odell Beckham Jr.'s return captured the most headlines, but he was only one of three wide receivers that the Giants signed this week.
Braxton Berrios and JuJu Smith-Schuster also joined the team and the decision to bring in the trio of wideouts was the subject of questions for head coach John Harbaugh at a Wednesday press conference. The Giants lost Gunner Olszewski to a torn Achilles in practice last week and Harbaugh called that “a catalyst,” but said that Malik Nabers’s ongoing recovery from last season’s torn ACL was not part of the equation.
“No, I’d say it’s separate from that. Nothing to do with that,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “There’s room enough for Malik and whoever the next four or five receivers are. There’s room enough for all those guys.”
Darius Slayton, Calvin Austin, Darnell Mooney, Isaiah Hodgins, Jalin Hyatt, and third-round pick Malachi Fields are also in the mix at receiver for the Giants, so there won’t be room for all of them when it comes time for the Giants to make decisions about their 53-man roster. That should make for a very competitive first training camp under Harbaugh this summer.
