Eric Gray Is Running Out of Time to Prove His Worth to the Giants

The New York Giants have their top two running backs secured for the 2026 season in Tyrone Tracy, who had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage in each of the first two years of his career, and Cam Skattebo, who had his season cut short halfway through the year with an ankle injury.

Tracy should be more comfortable playing running back, as someone who has just a few years at the position, and Skattebo looks to be fully healthy again after breaking out a backflip at Brian Burns’ softball game.

Under John Harbaugh and Matt Nagy, the run game will be built around that duo, but there will likely be a third back that works his way into the rotation somewhat consistently.

Devin Singletary was forced to take on a much larger role in 2025 than originally anticipated because of Skattebo's injury, and in 2026, he should be competing for a spot at the bottom of the running back room after agreeing to a pay cut to stay with the team.

Outside of Tracy and Skattebo, the rest of this running back room will have to earn their keep under a new coaching staff with no prior ties or allegiance to anyone on the roster, including former draft pick Eric Gray.

Eric Gray, RB

Height: 5-10
Weight: 211
EXP: 4 Years
School: Oklahoma
How Acquired: D5-’23

2025 in Review

Gray started the 2025 season on the Physically Unable to Perform list because he suffered a torn meniscus.

Gray was activated in time for Week 12 of the 2025 season. He appeared in four games (Weeks 12, 13, 16, and 17), and his production included two kick returns for 41 yards; he did not get a single carry on offense or a pass target.

What was interesting about this is that even though the team had lost Skattebo to a season-ending injury, it was as though they didn’t really have a specific role for Gray, who has proven that he’s not a fit as a kickoff returner, who doesn’t give them much, if anything, on special teams coverage, and who just hasn’t brought much to the running game.

Outside of the fact that Gray was a fifth-round draft pick, we’re really not sure why he was even added to the roster over someone who might have been able to give the team something. But the Giants, perhaps in a last-ditch effort to find a role for him, clearly thought otherwise, not that it panned out.

Contract/Cap Info

Gray was drafted by the Giants with the 172nd overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, signing a standard draft-pick contract worth $4,084,980 total over four years, with $244,980 fully guaranteed.

As he enters the final year of his contract, Gray carries a cap figure of $1,206,245 and is an easy number to offload for the Giants.

Cutting or trading Gray would create $1,145,000 in cap space while incurring a dead cap penalty of his $61,245.

If the Giants are looking to create space, especially as final cutdowns approach, or if there is a free agent the team wants to sign, Gray will be considered a cut candidate.

His cap savings figure is small but enough to make a dent in the cap in a pinch with a virtually nonexistent penalty.

2026 Preview

Gray will be fighting for his roster spot with the Giants throughout the summer and the preseason, if he makes it that far.

Tracy and Skattebo are locks to make the Giants roster this year, assuming they’re both healthy. Both are also expected to split the bulk of the carries.

The bottom of the running back room right now is set to be Gray competing with Singletary, Dante Miller, and undrafted free agent Damon Bankston for what should be one or two total roster spots or perhaps one roster spot and one spot on the practice squad.

Age is going to work against Gray here. Although he’s still young, he’s one of the more experienced options in the room and should be expected to be ahead of the younger backs.

He has struggled with consistency throughout his career as a pass protector, but has shown flashes of being solid, something we haven’t seen from the youth in Miller and Bankston.

Following the emergence of Deonte Banks as a kick returner in 2025, that role is taken away, where Gray could contribute, and it gives the Giants less incentive to keep him on the roster.

The likelihood of Gray making the roster outright doesn’t appear very promising, but if the Giants want, they should be able to place the younger backs on the practice squad to make the active roster work.

With what should be a gap-heavy run scheme, Gray should be able to channel some of what he did on film during college, when he was very productive at Oklahoma in a gap scheme.

Under former head coach Brian Daboll, the Giants used more of an inside zone/duo run game between the tackles as opposed to what we have seen Gray be comfortable running in before.

Schematically, the Giants will likely focus primarily on a gap-based run scheme with Greg Roman on staff. That said, the likelihood of Gray “turning back the clock” may not be very high, but it isn’t impossible for someone who hasn’t played or practiced much in over a year.

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