Malik Nabers trending toward Week 1 return vs. Cowboys

Malik Nabers tore his ACL last September and has been grinding through a comeback ever since. The Giants sent him in for a second procedure this offseason, a cleanup to shed scar tissue that was causing stiffness, and it wasn't supposed to move his timeline much. Instead, it might have sped things up.

That clip of Nabers moving around practice is exactly why the Giants' building is buzzing. He's reportedly shed the no-contact red jersey and gotten into live drills for the first time, tracking toward a Week 1 date against the Cowboys on Sunday night, September 13.

John Harbaugh isn't ready to guarantee anything, but he's also not hiding his optimism. Asked directly about Nabers' Week 1 outlook, Harbaugh said it's "reasonable to assume" the star receiver will be good to go, barring a setback.

The bigger validation, though, came from David J. Chao — ESPN's ProFootballDoc, a former NFL team physician whose injury reads carry real weight in the fantasy world. Chao flagged that the second surgery appears to have accelerated Nabers' recovery, and admitted Nabers is outperforming where he expected him to be at this point.

Chao was blunt that this offseason didn't look promising for Nabers, and he's happy to be proven wrong. He's still not diving headfirst into betting the over on Nabers' season-long futures, but the tone has shifted from cautious to genuinely encouraged — which matters a lot for anyone drafting Nabers this week and trying to figure out where to slot a receiver who was a borderline WR1 before the injury.

Nothing is locked in until the Giants actually activate him for the opener, and Harbaugh has been careful not to make blanket promises. But between the coach's language and Chao's read on the medical side, the signals are lining up in Nabers' favor heading into Week 1.