Malik Nabers weighing whether to play vs. Cowboys: 'I can't put my career at risk'

Pat Leonard, New York Daily News on Sep 10, 2026

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — Malik Nabers hasn’t decided yet whether he plans to play in Sunday night’s Giants season opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Giants’ top receiver was adamant Thursday that playing in the game is his call alone, regardless of the Giants clearing him medically already. And he is genuinely not sure if he is ready to play in his first NFL game since tearing his right ACL and meniscus last September.

“I’ve been wanting to play for so long now, but at the end of the day, I can’t put my career at risk,” Nabers, 23, said of the variables in play. “I gotta take that into account. There’s a lot of football I still have left to play.”

Nabers said it’s possible he could put in three full practices this week and still not play in John Harbaugh’s Giants debut.

“That’s a possibility,” Nabers said. “Like Harbs said, they’re leaving the decision up with me. Whatever I feel, whatever I’ve come to the conclusion of, we’ll make that decision.”

The third-year wideout said this isn’t gamesmanship, either. Sometimes NFL teams are coy about players’ statuses to gain a competitive advantage.

Nabers said this is not that. At all.

“By the look on my face, you feel like that’s what it is?” Nabers said. “I don’t care who I play. I don’t got no fear of nobody. I’ll let them know I’m playing if I’m playing. I’ll let them know if I’m not playing. So if you see me out there, you see me out there. If not, you don’t.”

It was clear listening to Nabers why Harbaugh grew so uptight on Wednesday while getting peppered with questions about his receiver’s status.

While Nabers said he doesn’t feel any pressure to play from the Giants, it’s obvious that Harbaugh and the Giants believe Nabers is ready and yet don’t have control over whether he’ll be in their Week 1 lineup.

Truthfully, if Nabers is honestly undecided about his body being ready for a game this close to kickoff, it probably means he isn’t mentally ready to be full go.

Pro football is difficult enough at full strength. It’s basically impossible to play if someone isn’t all in.

A compromise could be putting Nabers in the lineup on a pitch count of around 25 or 30 snaps to ease him back in. The only problem with that is the Giants don’t have the ability apparently to set that number of snaps.

Only Nabers does, according to him.

“If that’s the case, then they’re not letting the decision be on me,” Nabers said of the Giants possibly putting him on a pitch count. “I will come to them and tell them I want to be on a pitch count. I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me I’m gonna be on a pitch count, because at the end of the day it’s my career and it’s my body.

“So if a pitch count is in the conversation, then I will lead the conversation,” he added. “The decision will be on me.”

The interesting part of all this is that Nabers admittedly does feel good physically and said his body is “trending in the right direction.”

“I’m very confident in my ability to move,” he said after practicing in full a second straight day. “I’ve tested well, done tremendous testing. Overall, I’m good. My confidence is there. It’s just when do I want to put that on display.”

Nabers said part of the issue is that although he’s confident in practice, he knows game speed is much different. And he’s not sure how he’ll handle it yet.

“My confidence is high, but you have different confidence with a game,” he said. “You can go out in practice and make plays, but in a game, you never know what you’re gonna see. You never know what you’re gonna get.

“So just having the confidence in 100 percent I can go out there for sure and do what I can do, do what I want to do, do what I will do,” he continued. “For me, it’s about having the confidence and making sure I’m not being rushed, making sure the decision is really mine.”

This is a fascinating culmination of an encouraging summer for Nabers, who outperformed recovery timelines and expectations but also has the ability to negotiate a contract extension after this season.

“I grinded my a– off,” he said of his rehab.

Nabers said ultimately “I’ll let God tell me” what the right answer is. As difficult as sitting out would be, he reaffirmed that possibility is firmly on the table, as much as he wants to help his team win.

“The decision is the decision,” Nabers said. “Everyone has to understand that at the end of the day, it’s my career. It’s my body. I know when I’m able to play, and I’ll know when I’m able to do what I want to do.

“So everybody’s just gotta live with the decision on what I want to do with my career,” he added. “It’s my life. It’s my career.”

It’s the biggest question for the Giants’ biggest game of their season under the bright lights on Sunday night.