Hope season for the New York Giants lasted longer than most teams this year, and so too did the questions that hung over their offseason.
With the second-to-last kick-off of opening weekend, Giants fans had to wait, and wait… and wait to find out what their team would look like in 2026. Likewise, they also had to wait until the last minute to find out whether star receiver Malik Nabers would even play against the Dallas Cowboys.
Nabers’ status remained unclear even into Sunday afternoon, and reports
eventually emerged that Nabers would be a true game-time decision.
Even Nabers himself wasn’t sure if he’d be ready to go against the Cowboys. He even told his family to not come to the game, in case he wouldn’t be able to play.
“I really didn’t know; my family didn’t even come to this game because it’s a one-on-one battle that you have go through. You have to do it for yourself,” he said after the game. “I didn’t want everybody here, I didn’t want my family here and I feel like I let them down by not playing, so I had to do it for myself first. I had to go out there, feel it out, feel like I was doing it and I felt good.”
It was ultimately decided that Nabers would test his surgically repaired knee prior to the game against the Cowboys and make his decision based on how it felt. And even then, Nabers was nowhere to be seen when the media arrived at the press box, at least not until he came out for a dynamic warmup prior to the game.
Then the announcement was made: Malik Nabers wasn’t among the inactive players. The Giants’ star receiver would make his return against the Cowboys.
“The deciding factor was when I got out there, I just felt good.” Nabers said. “I felt good, I got a little chill through my body. I was like ‘Yeah, it’s time, it’s time’.”
“I got a sense about three hours before the game, maybe two and a half, somewhere in there, when he went out and tested it and he felt ready and that’s when the decision was made,” Giants head coach John Harbaugh said. “It was his call. He had been cleared medically, but he had to feel right. He had to feel like he was ready to go and he could protect himself and perform the way he wanted, and he did. Malik played a great game. He played a heck of a game.”
“I decided in warmups; really during warmups I felt really good, I felt good running around,” Nabers added. “I was catching really (well), I stretched really (well), warmup went pretty well. I just felt like it was time to go.”
Even quarterback Jaxson Dart wasn’t sure whether his top target would be able to play or not. At least not until he was able to see Nabers’ body language during warm-ups.
“I didn’t really want to ask for a while” Dart said.
“So, I was just watching him during the warm-ups, and I was trying to keep my distance and I was able to see this from his, like, you know, his communication, I guess. And then I saw him give one little nod before he came in and did routes on air, and then I went over and told (Giants quarterback) Jameis (Winston) that I think Uno’s (Malik Nabers) playing, and I was just ecstatic from that point on.”
Ecstatic for good reason.
While it was the Giants’ punishing running game that ground the Cowboys down, Nabers was invaluable for Dart. He was targeted on a team-high 9 of Dart’s 29 pass attempts, catching 6 for 69 yards, including several key gains.
“He’s just a guy where, no matter what the coverage is, no matter who they put out there on him, you have all the confidence in the world that he’s going to make a play,” Dart said of Nabers. “And I think that we were all not 100 percent sure what was going to happen. So, I was just super stoked. I think that once he was able to feel those lights and feel the game-day environment, maybe he had a little bit of adrenaline, and then he’s just a guy who wants to play for this team, loves the game. And I’m so happy that he was able to come back and have a game like this where he was just able to play really, really efficient and good football.”
In other words, Nabers played winning football, and his play helped the rest of the team play winning football.
Which is exactly what they set out to do from the start.
“We got guys in here that expect to win,” Nabers said. “During the walk-through I looked at everybody’s eyes, and I could tell from everybody’s eyes that they were ready to play. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that we weren’t coming out here giving our best foot forward and winning this game. Harbs’ (Giants Head Coach John Harbaugh) speech before the game yesterday, I (saw) it in his eyes that he knew we were coming out to play. We were coming out to play hard and that gave me all the confidence I needed.”
