Malik Nabers said he did not know for certain that he would suit up until pregame warmups. The Giants receiver needed to test himself first — stretching, running routes and listening to his body — before a familiar feeling finally arrived.
“I got a little chill through my body,” Nabers said after the Giants’ 28-20 season-opening win over the Cowboys. “I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s time.’ It’s time.”
Even Nabers’ family stayed away from the game that launched the John Harbaugh era in New York. Though he had practiced fully throughout the week, the star wide receiver remained questionable as he completed the final stretch of his recovery from the torn ACL that ended his previous season.
Once he decided to play, Nabers delivered six receptions on nine targets for 69 yards. It was an encouraging return for the Giants’ standout, who is working his way back toward the dynamic form he showed as a rookie and early in his second NFL season before the injury.
“It’s a one-on-one battle that you got to go through,” Nabers said. “You gotta do it for yourself. And I didn’t want my family here and I was feeling like I let them down by not playing. I had to do it for myself first. I had to go out there, feel it out, feel I could do it and then I felt good.”
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Nabers emerged from the tunnel shortly before 6:30 p.m. and began working with a trainer, putting his knee through a final on-field evaluation before making the decision. Earlier in the week, he had explained that protecting his long-term career was why his availability remained unsettled so close to kickoff.
The Giants wasted little time getting Nabers involved. On their opening drive, Jaxson Dart connected with him for the quarterback’s first completion of the night, as Nabers went in motion across the formation and turned the play into a 9-yard gain. Fans chanted his name after every catch. With New York’s offense operating with balance, Nabers did not have to carry an outsized workload in his first game back. Instead, he used a comeback performance that had seemed uncertain hours earlier to begin rebuilding his rhythm.
“I had to feel like I wanted to play,” Nabers said. “I had to feel it. Just everyone wanted to see me. … I had to feel the energy.”