With Devin Singletary missing Sunday's win in Seattle due to a groin injury, Giants rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr. took the pigskin and ran with the opportunity.
Tracy led the Giants with 129 rushing yards on 18 carries in the 29-20 road win, 100 yards more than the 29 total rush yards he put up in Weeks 1-4.
"He played well yesterday, but the 10 guys around him played well, too," head coach Brian Daboll said of the running back on Monday. "There were good holes, did a good job of pressing the line of scrimmage, making decisive cuts, putting his foot in the ground on that third and two, one and a half to make a big play there. But he's done a nice job for us since he's been here of just continually improving, which is what we want all our players to do."
Tracy, who played wide receiver for the first four years of his college career, showed good vision out of the backfield and power to run through arm tackles. He generated a +47 rush yards over expected on Sunday, per Next Gen Stats, the most by a Giants back since Saquon Barkley's +48 in Week 11, 2023.
Eric Gray took the first snaps out of the backfield, but after a goal-line fumble on the first drive, it was mostly Tracy the rest of the way (Gray took one carry for the duration of the contest).
"I think for any of those guys that played and didn't maybe have as much playing time, their job is to go out there and compete and play at a high level," Daboll said. "And that's what we expect. We've talked about that I think last week leading up to the game, if certain people can't play, that next man up mentality. So again, we'll do what we need to do each week. But yeah, he had a nice game."
The question is whether Tracy's performance earned him more carries even when Singletary returns.
"I think we just take it day by day, week by week, see what we're doing and what the game plan is for the opponent that we're about to play," Daboll said. "But we expect all our players to be ready and perform when their number's called."
If Tracy performs as he did Sunday -- generating positive yards and keeping Big Blue in good down-and-distances -- Daboll will undoubtedly call the rookie's number more often regardless of whether Singletary is healthy.
