Adam Schefter Sounds Alarm Over Giants WR Malik Nabers' Knee
The New York Giants had high hopes for former LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers when they selected him sixth overall in the 2024 NFL Draft. He overdelivered as a rookie.
Despite completely unreliable quarterback play - a revolving door of Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, and Tommy DeVito - Nabers led the Giants with 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns on 109 receptions in 15 games. His 109 receptions ranked fifth and his 1,204 yards ranked seventh among all NFL receivers in 2024.
The Giants had a ready-made No. 1 receiver for whoever became the franchise’s quarterback of the future - envisioning a connection like the one Eli Manning had with Odell Beckham Jr., whose 1,000-yard receiving season in 2018 was the most recent for the Giants since Nabers’ in 2024.
New York drafted quarterback Jaxson Dart 25th overall in last year’s draft. But Giants fans still haven’t seen whether Dart has that chemistry with Nabers because, unfortunately, Nabers tore his ACL during Dart’s first career start in Week 4 last September.
When will Dart throw to Nabers again? ESPN’s Adam Schefter has his concerns.
“We’ll start off with the fact that he’s in the building, he’s working hard, he’s rehabbing, [and] he’s trying to get back as soon as he can,” Schefter said on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday. “But saying all that, I just don’t like the way that any of this sounds.”
Schefter was referencing a report from ESPN’s Jordan Raanan earlier this month that revealed Nabers had undergone a second knee surgery at some point this offseason to “remove scar tissue that was causing stiffness.”
“It’s a complicated procedure,” Schefter said. “They don’t know if he’ll be ready for opening day. It certainly sounds like, at the very least, opening night against the Dallas Cowboys at home is in jeopardy. And it almost feels like, at this point in time, that it would be more unlikely that he would play in that game than it is likely that he would play in that game.”
On Thursday, newly hired Giants head coach John Harbaugh told reporters that Nabers’ knee injury was “not a simple one,” so his return to the field is “just impossible to predict.”
As a rookie quarterback, Dart developed the best rapport with Wan’Dale Robinson, who departed in free agency for the Tennessee Titans. The Giants’ thin receiving depth chart is highly dependent on a healthy Nabers returning to his 2024 production.
In 18 seasons as the Baltimore Ravens’ head coach, Harbaugh’s teams often had a run-first identity. It has been widely reported that Harbaugh wanted to rebuild the Giants into a physical, run-first team as soon as he took the job. That might be more of a necessity than a preference in 2026.
2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 3:23 PM.