During training camp, New York Giants coach John Harbaugh said he couldn’t imagine Malik Nabers returning to action from his 2025 torn ACL before getting at least some physical contact during practices.
After Nabers played Sunday in a 28-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, Harbaugh’s “tackle” of Nabers during a walk-through practice last week was a popular topic of conversation.
“It just kind of evolved into an opportunity to tackle,” Harbaugh said. “And I couldn’t pass it up, I guess. But no, it was
good. It was fun. It was all in fun. Lot of laughs. Some guys gave me a sideways look. Some of the players were like, what are you doing? So it was good.”
Harbaugh, in his 19th season as an NFL head coach, said it wasn’t the first time he had done that.
“I do tackle guys or imitate tackling guys because I really couldn’t tackle them in real life, I’m sure,” Harbaugh said. “But I have done that before. So, it wasn’t a first.”
Here are more takeaways from Harbaugh’s Monday afternoon Zoom call with New York media.
Tackling the ball security issue
Harbaugh was not happy about the Giants fumbling the ball four times against the Cowboys, though they were fortunate enough to get three of those fumbles back.
“One of the things that is one of those non-negotiables is ball security,” Harbaugh said. “We’re putting the ball on the ground entirely too much. It’s got to change. We’ve got to make the change on that. Every single ball carrier has got to make sure that it gets better.
“And it’s up to us as coaches. We’ve got to drill it. We’ve got to teach it. We’ve got to make sure that we do it better because the ball’s on the ground four times and that’s just not even close to being acceptable.”
Pancake Pat’s value
The Giants’ offense won the physical battle with the Cowboys’ defense on Sunday night. Giants fullback Patrick Ricard, who followed Harbaugh from the Baltimore Ravens, was a big part of that. Why does the fullback position continue to be important for Harbaugh in a league where many teams don’t even have one on their roster?
“When you study what we do, it becomes self-evident because the jobs and the roles that he’s being asked to play are built into our offense,” Harbaugh said. “Not everybody has those, but a lot of people do.
“Pat does his thing his way, you know, and there’s some things that I’m sure some of the [Kyle] Juszczyks of the world can do maybe better, if you want to call it that. But there’s a lot of things that Pat can do that nobody else can do. Nobody in the world can do some of the things that Pat Ricard can do. And that’s good for us. That’s unique for us. So it helps us be who we are. It builds into our team persona, our team identity. And we love that.”
Jaxson Dart assessment
The Giants’ second-year quarterback was 23 of 29 with three touchdown passes against the Cowboys. Harbaugh’s re-watch of the game left him even more impressed than he had been watching it live.
“I thought his accuracy was really good,” Harbaugh said. “He’s on time. The rhythm passing, if you want to call it that, getting the ball out on time was really good, in critical situations, especially when we needed to convert against man or zone. But numerous times against zone, he was able to put the ball right where it needed to be, right on time. And that was a big plus for us.”
