Ten months ago, Cam Skattebo’s rookie season ended on a single gruesome play. The New York Giants running back suffered a severe season-ending right ankle dislocation, open tibia fracture, and ruptured ligament in a Week 8 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The kind of injury that doesn’t just end a season; rather, it makes you wonder about a career. That being said, Skattebo made his triumphant comeback from the injuries in the first preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings. But as a few clips surfaced of him practicing pass routes, doubts have crept right back in, reigniting suspicions over whether his surgically repaired leg is truly healed enough for him to trust it on the field again.

And those doubts weren’t limited to his own position. During training camp, Giants quarterbacks struggled to find rhythm in drills when Skattebo was part of the offensive sets—analysts suggested his limited mobility in cuts disrupted timing. This is where the concerns about his fitness are not just about him, but about how his recovery affects the offense as a whole.

On PFT Live, Mike Florio and Chris Simms went frame by frame through video of Skattebo running routes, and what they saw wasn’t the “healthy” version the Giants have been selling.

“If you said for years when you favor one side, you put extra stress on the other, and then that leg ends up with some sort of a problem, soft tissue injury, something, because of all the extra stress and strain, because it is picking up the slack for that leg,” Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk said. “Just the idea that if you aren’t with your full and complete abilities and faculties on a football field, you’re asking for trouble.”

While commenting on Skattebo’s viral clip, Chris Simms echoed Florio’s concerns, referencing his own podcast discussion with Conner Rogers about Skattebo’s return. Both analysts noticed the same pattern. Skattebo favoring his left leg over his surgically repaired right.

“Yeah, it’s that right leg, right, and that’s kind of what buckles on him there, as he’s making that cut…” Simms said. “I saw not only this clip that you just showed here, but the same type of stuff when you watch the film, too, where you just go, ooh, it looks like he’s maybe a little reluctant to really plant that right leg in the ground and make the cuts you need to.”

Skattebo made his return in the first preseason game of the Giants against the Vikings. The Vikings won 13-10, but Skattebo got his chance to return. He showed strong downhill physicality, decisive cuts, and zero hesitation on his surgically repaired ankle. During the game, he rushed four times for 19 yards, per ESPN.

“It’s great he’s out there…He looked good. He did, but as you know, what we do, we study bodies, we study the mechanics and how it looks, and does it look the same after an injury,” Simms reiterated. “Yeah, it looked to me like he was favoring that a little bit, which can be scary. He was putting all that pressure on that left leg, that healthy leg all the time, but hopefully that continues to improve, and he gets more and more confidence off of that right leg from here on out.”

In 2025, Cam Skattebo underwent emergency orthopedic surgery after the Week 8 game against the Philadelphia Eagles on October 26. Following the surgery, he spent six weeks non-weight-bearing and later embarked on a rigorous six-month rehabilitation program. That made him available for the upcoming NFL season.

According to Pro Football Reference, last season, he appeared in eight games, scoring five touchdowns and rushing for 410 yards. He was also ranked 13th and 17th among the 55 qualified running backs for running and rushing grades, respectively.

After the first preseason game, Skattebo addressed his return and mindset. He showed a clear determination to contribute to his team and dismissed outside doubts.

“People know I’m crazy. I like to run through people instead of running around them. Hopefully you’ll see more running around people this year. And, you know, I don’t really care what people think,” Cam Skattebo said during the post-game presser. “If they think I’m not as good of a running back, they’ve still got to play me that week. So, I mean, I think Coach Harbaugh loves that I run right over the top of people. So, obviously, as I came back from injury and learning how to take less hits and try to maneuver better around people instead of through them…”

Giants Coach Gives Honest Assessment of Cam Skattebo’s Recovery

It wasn’t just him who was pleased to come back, but also his head coach, John Harbaugh. The coach offered a more honest and realistic statement based on his encouraging assessment of Skattebo’s performance in training camp and the first preseason game. Harbaugh explicitly stated that while Skattebo is clearly not at 100% health yet, his raw talent and foundational traits remain intact.

“I don’t think he’s 100%. He would say he’s not,” Harbaugh said on Monday. “But I got to see what you know about him already. I saw the foot quickness, the feel for the game, the explosiveness. It was good to watch him, good for me to see that.”

Harbaugh’s read splits the difference, but Cam Skattebo doesn’t sound like a man worried about his leg; he sounds like a man worried about proving people wrong. His post-game comments made that clear: he’s not changing who he is, hits or no hits, doubts or no doubts.

But the film Florio and Simms broke down suggests his body may be having a more cautious conversation with itself than his words let on, and that gap between mindset and mechanics, and its ripple effect on QB timing in training, is exactly what makes this situation worth watching.