Perhaps no New York Giants player felt the blow of losing Jaxson Dart quite so acutely as running back Cam Skattebo.
Dart and Skattebo were drafted together in 2025 and immediately seemed to be soulmates. Both players are aggressive and exceedingly competitive, with a type of energy that seems to feed, and feed off of, the other. The two have energized the fanbase and pretty quickly became two of the NFL’s brightest young stars a year ago.
Skattebo had a media availability after Thursday’s practice
and the topic of conversation was, unsurprisingly, the loss of Dart for the season.
The general theme of Skattebo’s remarks were characteristic of the brash young back: Injuries suck.
“Yeah, it sucked,” Skattebo said on Thursday. “I talked to him on the sidelines a little bit, and he’s my best friend. So, it’s a little emotional for me. It sucked to lose him, but we got to move on. The team has still got a full season left. We’ve got 15 games minimum left, and it’s something we have to battle through and continue to work together as a team.”
This isn’t the first time the duo has been broken up. Dart had to see Skattebo suffer a gruesome ankle injury last year, then carry on without him. This time the roles are reversed and Skattebo saw Dart get hurt and now needs to finish the year without his best friend.
Making matters worse, all the excitement for seeing Dart, Skattebo, and Malik Nabers healthy and developing together has been put on hold for yet another season.
“The good thing is it’s only year two and three,” Skattebo said when it was noted that the trio have only played 43 snaps together.
“I got hurt last year. I didn’t get to play with the guys, and then he [Dart] gets hurt this year,” he added. “It sucks. It does suck. But the bright side is we have a long future ahead of us, and with Malik being in year three, I’m in year two, Jaxson in year two, I mean, we have a lot of football ahead of us, and it really does suck to be on that side of the fence. But, I mean, at the end of the day, we’ve got to continue to work. Last year I got hurt, and they continued to work without me. So, we’ve got to continue to work. And Jaxson’s going to be here every day working his butt off to make sure that Jameis is in a good spot, the guys are in a good spot, and he’s doing everything, whatever he can to help. So, we’re ready to go.”
According to Skattebo, Dart is in high spirits, is in a good headspace, and is ready to attack the recovery process.
“He’s doing great,” he said.
“Obviously, when you get hurt it sucks, and you don’t know what to think,” Skattebo added. “And like Coach Harbs kind of says, it feels like the world’s over when you get hurt. But there’s another day to live on. He knows he has more football left in his life. And it does suck, especially now but as he gets through this rehab process and he starts feeling better, he’ll have a better light on things. And he’s strong-minded. He’s been through this a couple times already. So, he knows how to deal with it.”
Both Dart and Skattebo know that the injury is over, and now they simply have to move on and move forward. But that means different things to each player. For Dart, it means surgery and rehab, as well as getting into the building and continuing to hone the mental side of his game.
For Skattebo, and the rest of the players, it means picking themselves up and getting ready for the next fifteen games.
“You just lost your starting quarterback, a guy that was playing really well, a guy that was doing a lot of good things for us, and it does take a toll on you,” he said. “But at the end of the day, like I said, we have to continue to go. He knows we have to do that. He’s going to have our back doing that. And it’s just like losing anything significant in your life. We lost a big part of this team, and we have to fill it and continue to roll. So, I’m excited to see what we got.”
One guy they have is backup quarterback, and former first overall pick, Jameis Winston. The Giants signed Winston to a 2-year, $13 million contract extension just three weeks ago. The Giants’ brass obviously believes in him as a backup and as a leader in the locker room. So to does Skattebo, and the rest of the team seems to love the charismatic former 1st overall pick as well.
“We have Jameis’ back,” Skattebo said. “He’s going to go out there and perform and dominate the game. And I’m fully behind that, and I really do think that. And I think these guys came out here today to work really hard, and they bought in.”
“I’m excited for Jameis,” he added. “He can do everything. He looked great today in practice. I appreciate it for his leadership, the way the guys came in and out of the huddle on and off the field. That was kind of an emphasis today in practice, and he took control of that, and he made sure that the guys were locked in. And today went smooth, and everything looked really good.”
