John Harbaugh Raves About ‘Tone-Setter’ Cam Skattebo’s Electric Return From Fractured Ankle

RB Cam Skattebo’s determination knows no bounds, as he fulfilled a goal of getting snaps in team drills this spring, despite being eight months removed from a broken ankle.

Jun 9, 2026; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo (44) participates in drills during the minicamp activities at Quest Diagnostics Center. | Thomas Salus-Imagn Images

When New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo sets his mind to doing something, you'd better get out of his way.

As if the yards after contact he racked up at Arizona State, the forced missed tackles, and the downhill power running style haven’t been enough, all you need to know about Skattebo’s determination is the hard work he put in behind the scene to overcome a season ankle injury to where he was finally able to get his first reps in 11-on-11 drills this spring, some eight months removed from his surgery.

Kind of like what Skattebo hoped would be the case all along.

“I was happy,” head coach John Harbaugh said on Monday of Skattebo’s progress. “He was telling me that he was going to get some plays in group and team (drills). He's worked super hard, super hard. I did mention maybe no back flips out here today. We agreed.”

It wasn’t hard to see that things were trending in the right direction for Skattebo, who pretty much convinced everyone that his ankle was no longer an issue when he did a backflip a couple of weekends ago at Brian Burns’s charity softball game.

In case that wasn’t proof enough, watching the second-year running back work through agility drills during warm-ups on the first day of the camp as though his ankle had never been fractured was another clear sign of his readiness.

You further saw it when he caught a screen pass during Day 2’s 11-on-11s and got so excited about it that you’d have sworn he just hit the lottery.

That’s probably because, to Skattebo, he hit the lottery by being able to return to the game he loves so much. And that has endeared him to head coach John Harbaugh.

“Man, just a really good-hearted guy,” Harbaugh said with a big smile, adding that Skattebo brought up a question during a special teams meeting even though he wasn’t part of the punt team.

“He was in the meeting asking the question to make sure everybody's on the same page. I've never seen that before from a starting running back.”

That’s only part of what Harbaugh likes about the 24-year-old, a player the coach said he liked since scouting him last year while with the Baltimore Ravens.

“I thought he was just what you saw, a downhill runner, a tone-setter type runner. He's a tough tackle. That's what you look for. How many guys can make yards when they're not supposed to make yards on their own?

“It seems to me he was that kind of guy at Arizona State and the exact same guy that I saw on tape last year. He's a top-tier back, and he's planning on playing that way this year,” he said.

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