Sometimes, a player hears what on the outside sounds like legitimate questions about his chances to make it in the NFL, and that player bristles.
How dare someone who does not know me evaluate my worth and have the temerity to also doubt my ability to do it at the next level?
Tyrone Tracy could have thought all that, but he did not.
He took the opposite tact.
He knew what was out there about him as a prospective NFL running back, and he accepted the critiques because he understood some of them were valid and needed to be answered.
“I feel like my game is very unique,’’ Tracy said after his Giants breakthrough. “I can run like a receiver, but then I can also do the inside game as well. That kind of gets lost in translation just because I’m a receiver coming to running back.
“The big question coming into the league was, ‘Can he run inside zone?’ Obviously, I can run the outside stuff, I can do the open space, but they didn’t know if I could do it in between the tackles. I think, [Sunday], I answered that.”
Tracy’s answer was resounding.
He and Eric Gray were the substitute Giants running backs against the Seahawks, as starter Devin Singletary was out with a strained groin, missing his first game since he was a rookie with the Bills in 2019.
Gray, a second-year player, got the first call and, on the opening drive, caught three screen passes for a total of 50 yards.
But after Gray fumbled inches away from the goal line and the turnover was returned 102 yards for a touchdown, head coach Brian Daboll turned his attention to Tracy.
The rookie delivered.
Tracy, in his first extended playing time, advanced the cause for the belief that a middle-round running back can thrive as the showcase runner, as long as the offensive line is holding up its end of the bargain.
Tracy got the ball 18 times and accumulated 129 rushing yards for a robust average of 7.2 yards.
He never once was stopped for no gain or negative yards, which is an essential trait that is hard to find in a young back.
Tracy, 24, is old for a rookie but is fairly new to his position, having spent three years at Iowa as a wide receiver and his final two college years at Purdue as a converted running back.
At 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds, Tracy is man-sized, and he kept the chains moving in Seattle.
He also displayed some big-play moxie with a 27-yard scamper in the second quarter and a 25-yard gain in the third.
He was entrusted to protect the ball down the stretch, and his six fourth-quarter attempts went for 5, 7, 5, 4, 4 and 2 yards.
Nothing fancy but plenty tough.
“Just running really hard,’’ quarterback Daniel Jones said. “He’s a hard guy to tackle. Hit the hole hard and then making guys miss at the second level on a couple of those runs. I thought he had a really good game.’’
It is hard to believe that Tracy’s breakout will be viewed by the coaching staff as a blip on the radar.
Singletary will likely be ready to return for Sunday night’s game against the Bengals at MetLife Stadium.
He is a favorite of Daboll’s from their shared time together in Buffalo.
The running game the first four weeks with Singletary as the primary ball carrier was spotty.
He is averaging 3.9 yards per attempt after the ground game was stamped as null and void by the Cowboys in Week 4.
It stands to reason that Tracy, who had only 12 rushing attempts in the first four games, earned a greater workload moving forward.
“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 on Monday. “And that’s what we expect. So again, we’ll do what we need to do each week. But yeah, he had a nice game.’’
Tracy became the first Giants rookie to rush for 100 yards in a game since Saquon Barkley did it in December 2018 against the Cowboys.
No one is comparing these two players.
Barkley was the No. 2 overall pick in his draft class.
Tracy went right around where he was projected to go — fifth round, 166th overall.
Taking handoffs and running between the tackles is still fairly new for him, and the Giants liked what they saw in his first extended playing time.
“A baller,’’ right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said. “Tracy is a baller. You all saw it. Tracy said he was just going to go out there and do his thing, and that’s what he did. His patience in the backfield, the way he just hit the hole and created something out of nothing is ridiculous. Once he gets more comfortable in the system, sky’s the limit.”