Malik Nabors’ return uncertain: Should Giants worry about Jackson Dart’s supporting cast?

The New York Giants are trending to be even better in 2026 than they were in 2025. Everyone liked the hiring of John Harbaugh to replace the departed Brian Daboll. Everyone agrees that having Abel Reese and Francis Mauigoa in the top 10 was a strong first-round draft pick. Despite the departure of Dexter Lawrence, there are high expectations for the defense under Denard Wilson. And on offense, Jackson Dart is entering his second year after having quite a successful rookie season.

However, recent reports regarding the health of Dart’s No. 1 receiver are concerning. Malik Nabors tore his ACL last year and missed the final 13 games of the season, but as Harbaugh said this week, the injury wasn’t “simple” and Nabors required multiple surgeries. The Giants don’t appear to have a clear timeline for when he can return to the field.

“He’s in the middle of it. It’s very difficult. It’s the ACL and whatever else he had in that knee,” Harbaugh said via ESPN. “It’s not just a knee. [injury]you know? So, um, I would say he’s working on it and he’s having a hard time. So he’s been through it and he’s here every day working hard. It’s impossible to predict. So the goal is to start the season and get to training camp at some point. That would be the goal and we’ll see what happens.”

Even if you don’t like the idea of ​​hiring Matt Nagy as the team’s offensive coordinator, the uncertainty over the return schedule of the team’s top target casts a cloud over what looked like a solid environment for Dart to succeed in his second NFL season. (Given his recent track record, he probably shouldn’t.)

The offense has enough pieces to support Darts.

The Giants, for example, should have a decent offensive line in 2026. Andrew Thomas is one of the best tackles in football when healthy. Jermaine Elemunor solidified things on the other side of the line. Thomas finished third among tackles in Pro Football Focus’ pass-blocking grade last year, allowing just 13 pressures on 415 pass-blocking snaps. El Emnor finished 20th on the list, allowing just 19 pressures on 585 snaps. Both are strong in the run game, but Thomas is stronger than El Emnor.

Mauigore is considered perhaps the top offensive lineman in this draft class (he was taken as the second lineman behind Spencer Fano) and will play guard on the inside kick after a career as a tackle in Miami. He replaces Greg Van Roten, who was part of a relatively weak interior trio last season. John Michael Schmitz and Jon Runyan are still the two remaining spots, solid even if they’re mediocre starters (at least Schmitz is), but if they look like the two weakest links, that’s a pretty good spot.

As a group, the Giants should do well in pass protection as long as Runyan and Schmitz hold up. And the run game should at least be better than last season, as Mauigoa will attack on the right side of the line. It could be even better if Thomas can stay healthy than he has been the past few years, when he missed 22 of a possible 51 games (including four last year).

On paper, the skill position units also look pretty good. Nabers has proven he has the ability to be a true No. 1 receiver. Isaiah Riley showed very strong flashes in a limited role in Baltimore. They have depth at receiver with Darius Slayton, Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III and third-round pick Malachi Fields. Last year, when Theo Johnson wasn’t dropping passes, he put together a season worthy of a young tight end.

The backfield includes the duo of Cam Scatterbo and Tyrone Tracy Jr., with Devin Singletary occasionally playing third down. That’s not bad.

However, things don’t look very promising if Nabors is injured, forcing him to miss part of the season or limit his on-field appearances.

Optimism quickly disappears if Nabaas and Skatebo are not healthy

None of the other wide receivers are big threats on the outside or in the slot. We’ve seen what it’s like when Slayton is one of the top targets on a team’s offense, and it’s not pretty. Mooney had two seasons of basically value in his six years in the NFL. One of them was Nagy in a playcalling role, but that was five years ago when Mooney was 24, not 29.

Austin never exceeded 36 catches or 548 yards in his career and struggled to get on the field consistently despite a barren wide receiver depth chart in Pittsburgh. Fields is a big guy at 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds and is a good blocker and physical at the catch point, but he probably won’t be the type of player who can consistently create separation or be the unit’s lead receiver if Nabors misses time.

He was probably a part-time player throughout his career and never had more than 60 targets, 42 catches, or 477 yards. Tight ends tend to blossom during their second contract and probably have the talent to be a top option, but it wouldn’t necessarily be surprising if they take baby steps instead of big ones. For example, if you still have Johnson and you have another blocking tight end behind him in Chris Manhertz, there’s no guarantee he’ll play beyond the 75% snap rate that top tight ends typically achieve.

Then there’s the backfield. Skatebo had a solid rookie season, but it’s easy to forget that he averaged just 4.1 yards per carry. He is currently suffering from a fractured fibula, a dislocated ankle, and a torn deltoid ligament. That’s… not ideal. Over the past few years, we’ve seen that players, especially those who have fractured their fibula, take a long time to regain full strength, and that throwing a dislocated ankle in there makes things even worse.

Skatebo said he will be back in week 1However, there is no confirmation on that yet. If the backfield becomes just Tracy and Singletary for a while, or if Skatebo can’t just maintain but improve on last year’s efficiency, that backfield suddenly doesn’t look as strong.

Dart may have to overcome the situation on his own

Obviously, these are all just speculations. Despite the torn ACL, there’s a good chance Nabers is fully healthy and back to being the No. 1 receiver. There’s a good chance Skatebo can overcome his challenges and actually be better than he was as a rookie.

There’s a good chance Slayton will re-emerge as a serious threat. Nagy takes advantage of his chemistry with Mooney. Perhaps it will be an important step forward. Johnson plays an important supporting role. It doesn’t matter if Fields becomes a contested catch threat as a rookie or any combination of those things happens and something goes wrong because Dart is strong enough to handle it.

It’s also possible that Dart has grown enough to pull the situation up on his own. We’ve seen it happen before. This usually happens when the No. 1 receiver and No. 1 running back return from major injuries and the offensive environment is better than the one with Matt Nagy as the offensive coordinator, but it’s happened before.

And darts has a lot of talent. It needs to be used and guided in the right way – and he We need to stop playing recklessly He’s going to get hurt, but the talent is there.

However, if his injury situation, which is currently unclear, does not clear up over the next few months, he may not get the chance to shine until the end.