Cam Skattebo is back in 11-on-11 drills this spring, taking his first reps about eight months after ankle surgery and putting himself back into live work for the New York Giants. The running back’s return came into focus on Day 2, when he caught a screen pass and showed the burst that has been missing since the injury.
The timing matters because Skattebo had been working his way through rehab for months before he got to this point, and the first real team-period snaps are the clearest sign yet that the recovery is moving forward. He worked through agility drills during warm-ups on the first day of camp, then took part in team work after John Harbaugh said Monday that he was happy with the progress.
Harbaugh said Skattebo had told him he was going to get some plays in group and team drills, and the coach said the running back had worked “super hard, super hard.” That praise fit the picture around the comeback: Skattebo has spent the stretch after surgery trying to rebuild everything needed for contact, cutting and timing, not just getting back on his feet.
There was still a little humor in the return. Harbaugh said he mentioned maybe no back flips out there that day, a nod to the backflip Skattebo did a couple of weekends ago at Brian Burns’s charity softball game. The moment summed up the contrast in his return: enough progress to join live drills, but enough caution to keep the acrobatics out of practice.
For Skattebo, the next step is straightforward even if the team has not mapped it out publicly in detail. He has moved from rehab to drills, and then into 11-on-11 work, which is usually where a comeback becomes more than a hopeful update. What comes after that will be measured less by quotes than by whether he keeps stacking these reps without a setback.
