The first regular-season game for the Giants is Sept. 13 and they certainly want their playmaking wide receiver on the field at MetLife Stadium, running routes against the Cowboys in a “Sunday Night Football” opener. Malik Nabers, though, continues to battle through a strenuous rehab and, for the first time, someone in the know is speculating he might not be ready for Week 1.
“It’s just impossible to predict,” head coach John Harbaugh said Thursday after putting his team through organized team activity practice No. 3. “The goal is to start the season and get out there sometime in training camp, that would be the goal. And we’ll see what happens. If he’s out there, great. If he’s not out there, great, we’ll be ready to do either way. I know he’s fighting like crazy to do his best to be out there. He’s with the guys every day.”
Nabers went down in Week 4 last season to a torn right ACL and he also suffered meniscus damage in the victory over the Chargers — quarterback Jaxson Dart’s first NFL start. Nabers had reconstructive surgery October 28 but scar tissue developed and not long ago he underwent a clean-up procedure.
The 22-year old receiver is not close to getting back on the field with his teammates this spring.
“Yeah, he’s in the middle of it,” Harbaugh said of Nabers’ rehab. “It’s such a hard thing, It’s an ACL and whatever else he had on that knee. Not a simple knee. He’s in the slog of it, the grind of it I would say so he’s fighting through it. He’s here every day working hard at it.”
Indeed, Nabers was in the weight room on Thursday after the Giants came off the field inside the fieldhouse, as practice was moved inside because of the rain and wet outdoor fields.
Asked how Nabers is handling this lengthy process, Harbaugh said “I can’t speak for him. It’s probably the first time he’s been hurt like this. My experience with guys, the first time you have a serious injury, it’s tough, because it’s new for him. It’s a tough process.
“Our job is to stay close to him and stay with him and his job is to trust and work hard, he’s doing his job and the trainers and docs are doing their job and he will be back.”
Nabers in four games last season had only 18 receptions for 271 yards and two touchdowns. As a rookie, he showed the talent that made him the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, hauling in 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns.
Another returning wide receiver, Darius Slayton, had surgery to repair a sports hernia. Harbaugh said Slayton will be ready to practice when training camp begins the last week of July.
