If there is 1 player the New York Giants can say their season hinges on, that player might be Pro Bowl wide receiver Malik Nabers.
Nabers is coming off a torn ACL suffered early in the 2025 regular season — an injury that required a follow-up surgery — but the Giants finally got some positive injury news on their franchise pass catcher just days before veterans report to training camp on July 28.
“Malik Nabers (knee) is not on the PUP list to start training camp,” ESPN’s Jordan Ranaan wrote on his official X account on Thursday. “That’s a good sign.”
“Giants place three players on the PUP list in advance of veterans reporting for training camp next week … and Malik Nabers is not one of them,” USA Today’s Art Stapleton wrote on his official X account. “Neither is Cam Skattebo, so flip out if you’d like. The three: DL Sam Roberts and Roy Robertson-Harris, and TE Thomas Fidone.”
Nabers, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, set NFL records as a rookie for most games with 5 or more receptions as a rookie (14), youngest wide receiver with multiple touchdowns in a game, fastest to 100 career receptions, and most targets by a rookie (170).
As a rookie, Nabers had a franchise-record 109 receptions to go with 1,204 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns. Nabers had 18 receptions for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2025 before he tore his ACL in Week 5.
Malik Nabers ‘Dark Horse’ for NFL Offensive POY
If Nabers is healthy, the Giants have 1 of the few wide receivers who can change games almost single-handedly, and Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay put Nabers at the top of his list of “dark horse candidates” to win NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 2026.
Nabers currently sits at +4500 odds to win across the major betting sites, with Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs and Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson running neck-and-neck as favorites with odds ranging from +700 to +900.
If Nabers can be elite again, it’s an incredible value to the Giants — his 4-year, $29.2 million rookie contract is over $10 million less than what the NFL’s top wide receivers get paid in a single season.
“Despite Nabers’ bursting onto the scene with one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory — he caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games — and establishing himself as one of the best receivers in the league, he only has the 19th best odds of winning Offensive Player of the Year this season,” Kay wrote on July 8. “Nabers’ impending return will be a massive boon for a Giants squad working to take a major step forward in 2026. The team went all-in on a regime change and roster improvements this offseason, most notably placing John Harbaugh at the head coaching reins and bolstering Jaxson Dart’s protection with first-round guard Francis Mauigoa.”
Dart-Nabers Team Up Still Unknown Commodity
While the hope is Nabers returns and immediately starts catching bombs from 2nd-year quarterback and 2025 1st-round pick Jaxson Dart, that’s still a pretty big unknown.
The 4 games Nabers played in 2025 before his injury were mostly defined by him complaining about the offense, including a sideline blowup in a season-opening loss to the Commanders — a game in which he had 5 receptions for 71 yards on 12 targets.
Nabers, to his credit, pointed out that anyone with that many targets shouldn’t be complaining, and he needed to work on his “sideline demeanor” moving forward.
Nabers lit up the Dallas Cowboys with 13 receptions for 167 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 41-37 overtime loss in Week 2, but only had 2 receptions for 13 yards on 7 targets and didn’t have his 1st catch until the 4th quarter in a 22-9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3.
“We’re 0-3,” Nabers said after the loss to the Chiefs. “We can’t win a game. It’s frustrating. We can’t win.’’
Nabers’ final game was also Dart’s 1st career start — a 21-18 Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in which Nabers caught 2 passes for 30 yards on 3 targets before he hurt his knee in the 2nd quarter.
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