The New York Giants made six selections in the 2024 NFL draft, starting with LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers in Round 1.
Nabers figures to follow in the footsteps of the the other great wideouts to come out of Baton Rouge in recent years such as Odell Beckham Jr., Ja’Marr Chase, and Justin Jefferson.
But the Giants may have stumbled on another productive player in their fifth-round selection, Purdue running back Tyrone Tracy Jr., whom TouchdownWire’s Doug Farrar calls the sleeper of this Giants’ draft class.
With Saquon Barkley out of the picture, the Giants had a pre-draft running back rotation of Devin Singletary, 2023 fifth-round pick Eric Gray, and a bunch of “meh” after that. Which means that anyone coming in from the draft would have an opportunity beyond the preseason.
Enter Purdue running back Tyrone Tracy Jr., who at 5′ 11⅛” and 209 pounds, totaled 714 yards, eight touchdowns, 46 forced missed tackles, 14 carries of 15 or more yards, and 36 first downs on just 114 carries. That put Tracy with a yards per carry average of 6.3 — another arbiter of his big-play potential and ability to run with power. Tracy can also catch the ball. In fact, before he was a running back at Purdue, he was a receiver at Iowa, and he actually made big plays in that garbage fire of an offense. Not bad for a guy who was there with the 166th overall pick in the fifth round.
Tracy will have an opportunity to play several roles for the Giants on offense and special teams. The biggest plus, however, is his versatility as a receiver, which hasn’t gotten past head coach Brian Daboll.
“He’s a former receiver. In terms of yards per carry, he’s been pretty good,” Daboll said. “He’s an athlete who has played receiver and then played running back and has some good production. We’ll throw him in the mix. Whether that’s in the kickoff return game or whether that’s at running back or the receiving part of it, we’ve got to do a good job of getting him in here and seeing where he’s at and then trying to fit him into the things that he can do well.”
In the post-Saquon Barley age, the Giants could use some immediate answers in their backfield. It looks like they may have found one.
