Malik Nabers had a second surgery on his right knee earlier this offseason, and the Giants are still publicly optimistic he will play Week 1. I am not buying it. The math does not work, the timeline does not work, and a player coming off a torn ACL plus a full meniscus repair plus a scar tissue cleanup is not a great bet to play in September.
Here are the facts. Nabers tore his ACL last October. He also had a full meniscus repair done at the same time, which complicates the recovery. The original surgery was performed October 28 by Dr. Daniel E. Cooper, the Cowboys team physician who also handles a lot of high-profile knee cases. Now Nabers has had a second procedure to remove scar tissue causing stiffness in the joint.
The team is calling it a cleanup. ESPN’s reporting suggests the procedure was not expected to alter the timeline. That is the company line, and Giants fans have heard versions of it before. The reality is that scar tissue removals on repaired meniscus knees are not minor, and the fact that it was needed at all is a sign the original recovery was not progressing the way the medical staff hoped.
ESPN’s Jordan Raanan put it bluntly. He said Week 1 is in serious question and the situation needs to be monitored all summer. That is the more accurate read of where things stand. The Giants open the season against the Dallas Cowboys on September 13 in a Sunday Night Football game at MetLife Stadium. That is a 10-and-a-half month return from a major knee surgery.
The history on this kind of injury is not encouraging. Receivers who tear an ACL plus have a meniscus repair often take 12 to 14 months to look like themselves again. Some do not get there at all. The list of guys who have come back to full speed in under a year is short, and almost none of them had to go in for a second procedure during the recovery.
For the Giants, this is a major problem. Nabers is the most explosive offensive player on the roster. He was on a pace to put up huge receiving numbers in his second season before the injury cut him short. Without him, the passing game is going to lean heavily on Wan’Dale Robinson and whatever the team gets out of the tight end position. That is a hard offense to win games with.
The optimistic case is that Nabers comes back in mid-October, plays the second half of the season, and the Giants build their playoff push around him. That is probably the realistic best-case scenario, and it is the one fans should be preparing themselves for.
The worst case is that the knee does not respond, a third procedure becomes necessary, and Nabers loses most or all of his second NFL season. Receivers can come back from major knee surgeries, but compounding procedures rarely end well. Just ask Robert Griffin III about that.
What the Giants need to do is stop pretending the Week 1 target is realistic and start planning for a season where Nabers is a midseason addition rather than a Week 1 starter. The roster can be built around that timeline. It just requires the front office to be honest about where their best player actually is.
Week 1 against Dallas without Nabers is a tough way to open the year. Get used to that idea.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
