
Joe Metz breaks down how to approach Cam Skattebo in 2026 fantasy football drafts with rumors swirling of the Giants' interest in rookie RB Jeremiyah Love.
The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a week away, and the rumor mill is churning more by the day. One of the rumors that keeps getting louder? The Giants and, notably, new Head Coach John Harbaugh are “especially high” on RB Jeremiyah Love.
And what you just heard, my friends, was all of the wind being taken out of the sails of the Cam Skattebo faithful (mainly Kendall Valenzuela). After a promising, albeit injury-abbreviated, rookie season, what would Cam Skattebo’s fantasy football value be if the Giants were to draft a generational RB prospect as a top-five pick in the NFL Draft?
Cam Skattebo was nothing short of electric when he was on the field last season, and that was especially true from Weeks 4-7 when we got a true taste of what his ceiling could be.

With Tyrone Tracy on the shelf for Weeks 4 and 5, Skattebo notched a 72% snap rate, commanded 63% of the rushing attempts (to Devin Singletary’s 21%) and posted a Utilization Score of 85, which would have positioned him as the RB6 on the season in terms of Utilization Score (tied with Chase Brown).
The Giants were clearly impressed with Skattebo during that stretch, too. Even with Tracy’s return in Week 6, Skattebo notched his second-highest snap rate of the season (72%) and his best fantasy outing (31.0 points) of the year.
He was well on his way to a breakout second half before a leg injury derailed his season.
All that to say, it’s understandable why people have excitement about Skattebo in 2026. Whether or not that excitement will extend beyond the 2026 NFL Draft remains to be seen.
As things currently stand, Skattebo carries a consensus RB24 rank, profiling as a back-end RB2 in our fantasy football rankings.
Our fantasy football projections, however, are more bullish on Skattebo, as he currently sits as the RB15 in half-PPR projections (211.5, 13.6 FPPG), closer to a high-end RB2 with borderline RB1 upside.
It’s safe to assume that this would not hold in a scenario where Jeremiyah Love joins the backfield.
Love carries the fifth-highest score in the history of the Rookie Super Model (91), illustrating just how elite a prospect the phenom out of Notre Dame is.
I chatted with our Director of Analytics, Dwain McFarland, about what Skattebo’s projection would look like in this scenario, and, as you can imagine, it’s not pretty.
| PPR Points Per Game | 9.2 (RB33) |
| 0.5 PPR Points Per Game | 8.2 (RB34) |
| Rush Attempts | 30% |
| Routes | 35% |
A near-20-RB drop in half-PPR projections? WOOF.
The worst part? Dwain specifically mentioned that “I might not be docking him enough”.
Dwain’s main takeaway? He would become a low-end RB3 to RB4 in the ranks. Would give Love more carries, but still give Skattebo some love in the pass game with decent routes and targets.
So …
This depends entirely on your risk tolerance. Skattebo is a perfect case of drafting for upside and being comfortable with a wide—and I mean wide—range of outcomes.
His current fantasy football ADP on Underdog has him sitting as the RB24 (pick 57.7), essentially drafting him in line with our current, pre-draft rankings. Over the course of the next week ahead of the NFL Draft, I would expect Skattebo’s ADP to continue to slide given the smoke around the Giants' interest in Love. Obviously, if they do draft Love, it would completely crater post-draft.
That said, if they don’t draft Love, we could see Skattebo’s ADP slowly creep back up.
Based on recent NFL Mock Drafts, I believe Jeremiyah Love will hear his name called with the No. 4 overall pick to the Tennessee Titans, making him unavailable for the Giants at No. 5. Because of this, I’m taking shots on Skattebo at his current (and somewhat sliding) ADP in a range littered with high-variance options (Quinshon Judkins, Brian Thomas, Bhayshul Tuten, to name a few).
Come the draft, no player will have more to gain/lose in terms of fantasy value than Skattebo, and I'm buying into that value increasing post-April 23.
In any case, drafting Skattebo won’t be without its headaches …
