EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Malik Nabers did not follow what has become his usual practice routine on Tuesday. Nabers was not on the field at the beginning of practice for stretching warmups and individual drills. Instead, he remained inside with training staff.
Reporters passed Nabers, in full uniform and headed to the field, while leaving at the conclusion of the media viewing period. That was roughly 20 minutes into practice.
With hopes having risen that the star wide receiver, recovering from a torn
ACL, could play in the Sept. 13 season-opener against the Dallas Cowboys, should the change in routine raise alarm bells regarding Nabers’ Week 1 availability?
Head coach John Harbaugh downplayed the significance of the change in routine, calling it “just part of the process” as Nabers recovers from the pair of surgeries he had to repair his knee.
“It’s just day-to-day. That’s up to the trainers,” Harbaugh said. “They let us know what he’s ready for at a certain time, so it’s part of the process.”
Harbaugh said Nabers took “most of the team reps” after coming out to the practice field.
Nabers seemed a bit cryptic when asked on Monday how he was physically.
“I’m going to keep the checkpoints in-house,” Nabers said. “It’s not really anything too big, but like I said, I’m going to keep it more in-house and just to myself.
“I feel real good, to be honest. But like I said, you’re going to feel good, but there’s still some things that you still have to check off the box for you to participate. So, I’m still going through that, still listening to the trainers, still listening to doctors and sharing everything with them.”
Time is, of course, growing short. Week 1 is less than two weeks away.
“We’ve got to plan for every outcome,” Harbaugh said. “So we have to plan that he’ll be there fully. We’ll have to plan that he’s not there at all, and we’ll have to plan that he’s there for some partial amount, and every kind of amount in between.”
Harbaugh admitted the uncertainty “makes it tough” to prepare.
“You never know if a player’s going to be available or not, because anything can happen,” Harbaugh said. “Things can happen first play of the game, last play of the game, whatever.
“Someone’s got to be ready to come in and step in, so you don’t overthink that. You just prepare for it, and you have guys ready to play.”
Could Nabers play in a limited capacity?
“How much he can play and in what capacity? That’s exactly what we’re looking at,” Harbaugh said. “Is he going to be where he needs to be to help us win? And then he has to be confident. Of course, he’s got to be confident.
“Because for him to play at the level he’s going to need to play for us to win and protect himself, he’s going to have to feel good about it. He’s got to feel like he’s there. He’s got to know he’s there. To me, that’s just going to be an ongoing conversation right throughout.
“When you come back from an injury, whether it’s long-term or even short-term, where do we stand with the doctors, the trainers, the player? How does he look on tape? What do the numbers say? How fast is he running?”
Nabers himself doesn’t seem certain how this will play out.
“That would be a decision that would be made when that time comes,” he said. “Like I said, the outside view, I might look like I’m one hundred percent. I make everything look well. I mean, sometimes I run routes and I go look on the internet and I’m like, ‘Dang, I was moving kind of crazy.’
“But when you’re in your body and you’re in it, you still have some things that you still got to work on as a football player that you got to be like, I don’t feel right doing this cut, I don’t feel right, I haven’t been hit, I haven’t seen this. So, it’s certain things that you just got to, as a forward player, you got to mentally prepare that before you go into a game and then everybody’s just seeing you. So, if you make a mistake, it’s all broadcast, so nobody really knows. So, it’s like, I want to be able to come out there and make no mistakes and just be able to fly around and do what I do. So, I’m getting there for sure. I’m getting there.”
Will he get there fast enough for opening night? Stay tuned.
