Is Tyrone Tracy Jr. The Starting Running Back For The Giants?

October 16, 2024

Will Tyrone Tracy Jr. start for the New York Giants when he returns? John Johnson breaks down the Tyrone Tracy Jr. return timeline and fantasy football outlook.

New York Giants running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. burst onto the fantasy scene in the absence of lead running back Devin Singletary. In two games with Singletary out due to injury, Tracy scored 14 and 22.7 PPR fantasy points, making him not only startable but a great fantasy asset (those were the RB18 and RB5 finishes in full PPR).

It's always nice to see a rookie shine, and for fantasy managers who picked him up, it can feel like striking gold, but the return of the starter from injury will certainly hurt his fantasy value in the short term. We don't usually see players lose their jobs to their backups after two games out with injury.

So will Tyrone Tracy Jr. be the starting running back for the New York Giants when Devin Singletary returns?

Will Tyrone Tracy Jr. Start For The Giants When Devin Singletary Returns?

For now, probably not. The starter coming into the season is still a good running back, and it's important to not lose sight of that. Fantasy points scored don't give you all the information about a player's effectiveness -- PPR fantasy points can be especially misleading.

TEAM PLAYER: #Giants running back Devin Singletary had an easy touchdown, but decided to go down at the one yard line, so his team could run out the clock.

🫡🫡🫡

LOVE THIS!
pic.twitter.com/9rmKGgCmRe

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) September 22, 2024

Sliding rather than scoring the touchdown is never fun, but he shows his elusiveness here to ice the game for the Giants. They trust him and he's delivered for them. He's not going anywhere.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. Fantasy Football Outlook

In Week 6 against the Cincinnati Bengals, he showed excellent explosiveness as a pass-catcher, likely meaning he's earned at least somewhat of a role moving forward. It's unlikely we see Singletary return to his workhorse role, but he's still a good running back. In the short-to-medium term, we should see the work approach a 50/50 split.

Missed Tackles Forced Leaders through Week 6

Jordan Mason - 29
James Conner - 23
Najee Harris - 21
Derrick Henry - 21
Kennth Walker III - 20*
Devin Singletary - 20*
Rhamondre Stevenson - 20
Tank Bigsby - 19

*played only 4 games

— Chris Nass (@NassNFL) October 16, 2024

Despite numerous calls from the media and analysts to give Tracy the starting job, the former Buffalo Bill has been more effective at forcing missed tackles, and also has value in the receiving game. The rookie had two full games against very poor run defenses, yet he only averaged 2.94 yards per carry against the Bengals.

A more reasonable outcome is Singletary in the lead role while the rookie slowly takes on more volume. We likely see the former Purdue Boilermaker eat into the lead back's passing game work, but two good showings against two teams that are bad at defending the run can be misleading.

When both backs are healthy, Tracy is a bench stash for now. We'll need more time to see how head coach Brian Daboll splits the work between the two tailbacks.

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