Malik Nabers delivered a welcome sight to New York Giants fans by returning to the practice field on Thursday. However, the wide receiver still isn't sure when he'll play his next NFL game.
Nabers participated in Thursday's practice, 10 months after suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Week 4. The 23-year-old has no set timetable for when he'll next play and wouldn't commit to being ready for New York's season-opening game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 13.
"There's no target date," Nabers told reporters. "Just stacking days, and I'll continue to let everybody know how I feel and when I'm able to get back out there."
Nabers' recovery status
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Nabers provided hope to a downtrodden Giants organization by tallying 109 catches for 1,204 yards in an explosive rookie season. The ACL tear prematurely concluded his sophomore campaign last October, and he underwent a second cleanup procedure to remove scar tissue from his knee in May.
Following that operation, the Giants added depth to their receiving room by signing Odell Beckham Jr., Braxton Berrios, and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Those moves raised concerns about Nabers' availability to start the 2026 season.
Nabers took an early step in his road to recovery by practicing with the team on Thursday.
"It felt good to be out there with the guys," Nabers said. "Get a couple of throws, just move around. I never moved around in a long time, but running routes felt good out there."
The former No. 6 pick will look to keep getting more comfortable back on the field before determining when he can return.
"If I can just keep on stacking days with the training staff and they continue to see improvements on my body, continue to see improvements on my knee and where I'm at, it just gives me more confidence to go out there and be able to play," Nabers said.
Giants general manager Joe Schoen also declined to give any estimated target dates when discussing Nabers on Wednesday.
"The medical staff has a really good plan for him, and we're going to -- always say listen to the patients," Schoen said. "We're going to see how he reacts. And again, we got a good plan in place, so as long as everything goes as planned, we'll listen to Malik and his body and again, hopefully he'll be ready and we'll see how it plays out. But no predictions right now, just because we have a long way to go. Still a lot of camp."
