Malik Nabers stayed on the sideline Thursday as the Giants went through their joint practice with the Dolphins, and that was always the plan.
The star wide receiver is still working his way back from the ACL and meniscus tear he suffered in Week 4 last season, and New York isn’t putting him into a physical setting like this until the team is ready. Joint practices bring a different kind of heat than a normal camp session, with unfamiliar defenders, less predictability and a lot more chance for contact. For a player in the middle of a knee recovery, that’s not the place to test things.
ESPN Giants reporter Jordan Raanan said Nabers was not taking part in the session Thursday and called it “not a surprise,” after head coach John Harbaugh had already made it clear earlier in the week that Nabers would be held out of this kind of work. Before the trip to South Florida, Harbaugh told reporters that Nabers would travel with the team but would not take reps against a different opponent’s defenders, something the Giants can’t control the way they can in their own padded practices.
Nabers did get back into full-speed team drills this week for the first time, working in 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 periods while wearing the red no-contact jersey typically used for quarterbacks. Giants defensive backs have been told to ease up rather than finish plays on him, and safeties Tyler Nubin and Jevon Holland have both backed off contact during team work instead of risking a hit on the recovering receiver.
Harbaugh has been clear about the next step. “He won’t go through the rest of the summer in a red jersey,” Harbaugh said, per Yahoo Sports.
“He’s going to have to get bumped around and hit and fronted up. You just have to feel that and know how to deal with it to protect yourself.”
That kind of contact is expected to come in a controlled Giants practice, not against Miami in a joint setting.
Nabers is traveling with the team to Florida and is expected to do individual work on the side, but he is not expected to play in Saturday’s preseason game against the Dolphins either, according to Big Blue View.
The bigger goal is still Week 1. Nabers is on track to be ready for the Giants’ regular-season opener on Sept. 13 against the Dallas Cowboys unless something changes, and that remains the target behind every decision the staff is making right now.
And when he’s right, he changes the offense. Jaxson Dart is entering his second season as the Giants’ starting quarterback, and getting Nabers back gives New York a real difference-maker.
The LSU product was electric as a rookie after the Giants drafted him sixth overall in 2024, catching 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games and earning a Pro Bowl nod while working with Daniel Jones, Tommy DeVito, Drew Lock and Tim Boyle. He picked up right where he left off to start last season, too, posting 18 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns in his first three-plus games before the knee injury ended his year in Week 4.
Thursday’s practice also came after the Giants and Dolphins discussed how physical the session would be, including “rules of engagement” around protecting quarterbacks and keeping players from going to the ground. That’s standard joint-practice business, but it also explains why Nabers wasn’t part of it.
This was not a setback. It was the plan, unfolding exactly the way the Giants wanted.
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