New York Giants coach John Harbaugh said Thursday that the goal is for star wide receiver Malik Nabers to return from a knee injury at some point in training camp and be ready for the season opener in the fall, but he’s not certain.
Nabers, who tore his right ACL in September and underwent a full meniscus repair on Oct. 28, had a procedure earlier this offseason to remove scar tissue that was causing stiffness.
The recovery process is long and the timetable is unclear for when Nabers could return to the practice field.
“He’s in the middle of it. It’s such a hard thing. It’s an ACL, and whatever else he had in that knee,” Harbaugh said after his team’s third OTA practice. “Not a simple knee (injury), you know? So he’s in the slog of it, the grind of it, I would say. So, he’s fighting through it, and he’s here every day working hard at it.
“Just impossible to predict. I mean, the goal is to start the season and get out there sometime in training camp. That’d be the goal, and we’ll see what happens.”
The Giants and their new head coach open the season at home on Sept. 13 against the Dallas Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
“If (Nabers is) out there, great. (If) he’s not out there, great. We’ll be ready to go either way,” Harbaugh said. “But I know he’s fighting like crazy to do his best to be out there, and he’s with the guys every day.”
Nabers, 22, finished with 18 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns in four games last season. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie first-round pick in 2024 with a franchise-record 109 receptions for 1,204 yards and seven scores in 15 games.
The Giants revamped their receivers room this offseason. They lost Wan’Dale Robinson to the Tennessee Titans in free agency and added Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin III before drafting Malachi Fields in the third round. They were all available at OTAs.
“I’m excited about those guys,” Harbaugh said of veterans Mooney and Austin. “They’re pros, starters, established starters in the NFL, and they look good.”
Another top target, Darius Slayton, is sidelined after core muscle surgery.
“He had a sports hernia thing,” Harbaugh said. “That’s one of those deals you just got to — you can try to nurse it through and he nursed it through last year, I guess. And so I think we all agreed just get it fixed and he’ll be 100% for the start of training camp.”
