The New York Giants may not have selected a running back in the 2026 NFL Draft \u2014 despite many predicting that they would do so \u2014 but they haven\u2019t ignored the position, either.<\/p>\n
The Giants signed New Mexico runner and returner Damon Bankston as an undrafted free agent to continue to churn and upgrade the back end of their roster.<\/p>\n
Bankston\u2019s collegiate career started with the Weber State Wildcats, where he played from 2021 to 2024, before transferring to New Mexico for the 2025 season. Bankston was a very productive back for Weber State, and ranks sixth all-time in yardage despite an injury cutting his 2023 season short after 5 games.<\/p>\n
He remained productive at New Mexico with 1,032 scrimmage yards, 1,466 all purpose yards, and 10 total touchdowns last year. Bankston was thoroughly off the national radar, but did receive a Top 30 invite from the Green Bay Packers. Despite that, the Giants were able to recruit him to the Meadowlands.<\/p>\n
Bankston is an undersized runner at 5-foot-10, 196 pounds, but his frame belies a tenacious runner. Bankston is a short-striding runner which limits his top speed a bit (not that his 4.43-second 40 is slow by any means), however he appears to be a \u201cquicker than fast\u201d runner on the field. He runs with short, choppy steps and incredible stride frequency which allows him to hit top speed in a hurry, as well as cut on a dime. Bankston has good vision and the kind of contact balance you\u2019d expect from a player with his natural leverage, which combined with his quickness and agility to resemble something like a water beetle. He\u2019s able to make defenders miss in a phonebooth, constantly skittering from hole to hole and bouncing off of would-be tacklers.<\/p>\n
Bankston is also a good receiver, with 31 catches for 397 yards (12.8 per catch) and 3 touchdowns. He had 10 total touchdowns last year, five rushing, three receiving, and two on kickoff returns.<\/p>\n
(Bankston is the New Mexico running back wearing number 1.)<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t surprising, then, that Bankston\u2019s real value comes as a returner. He returned 12 kicks at New Mexico, racking up 434 yards (36.2 per return), and the aforementioned pair of touchdowns. Given the changes to the NFL\u2019s kick-off rules, it behooves teams to have dangerous options at kick-off returner. The opportunities will be there for a good return game to set up the offense, or even create game-changing scores on special teams.<\/p>\n
Having an impact on kick-offs is going to be Bankston\u2019s best chance to make the Giants\u2019 roster. If he can\u2019t force his way onto the 53-man roster, he might be a lock for the practice squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Giants may not have selected a running back in the 2026 NFL Draft \u2014 despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[189201,25565,349,99],"class_list":["post-619996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-new-york-giants-draft","tag-new-york-giants-roster","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}