EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New York Giants coach John Harbaugh is especially pleased with the progress that wide receiver Malik Nabers has made of late and is "hopeful" he'll be back soon.
It's all positive news as the Giants enter their summer break. General manager Joe Schoen even told Yahoo Sports this week that he still thinks Nabers will be "fine" for Week 1.
Nabers tore his ACL in Week 4 last season, which required a full meniscus repair. He needed an additional cleanup procedure earlier this year to remove scar tissue that was causing stiffness.
The third-year wide receiver didn't take part in the Giants' mandatory minicamp this week. The team is now off until they report to training camp the final week of July in West Virginia.
"He said his plan is to be here most of the time, almost all the time he'll be here, I believe," Harbaugh said after the final minicamp practice on Wednesday. "I don't think he will be here all the time. He's going to be here a lot working really hard. He's making really good progress right now. I'm very hopeful that he'll be back soon.
"Also, understand when you come back from a knee, he'll be back, and he'll still be building his way back to his ultimate full-strength self. But he's doing great. He's doing a great job. He's made some real good progress in the last few weeks."
Nabers' rehab hasn't exactly gone smoothly. The Giants originally thought he would likely be ready for the start of training camp, then audibled their projected timeline to sometime this summer before settling on being "hopeful" for Week 1.
Harbaugh said last month that Nabers' knee injury was "not simple" and he was in the "slog of it." Nabers participated in Brian Burns' Celebrity Softball Game at the end of last month, but was not running well.
Nothing seems to have changed much in the Giants' eyes with this latest progress.
"I wasn't less optimistic before," Harbaugh said on Wednesday. "Like I said, it's a slog, it's a grind. He's still in the middle of it. He's probably not in the middle of it now. He's probably maybe 70% through. I don't know, something like that, 80% through.
"He's still grinding. It's going to be a grind when he starts playing again too to get back right."
Therein lies perhaps the biggest problem with Nabers being ready for Week 1, which remains three-plus months away. The Giants open on Sept. 13 at home on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys.
If Nabers returns in late October or early September it still will take time before he's ready for game action. He will likely need to get on the field at least several weeks before the opener in order to play.
The Giants recently signed three veteran receivers in Odell Beckham Jr., Juju Smith-Schuster and Braxton Berrios to supplement their receiving corps. They were short-handed with Nabers and Darius Slayton (core muscle) currently rehabbing injuries and Gunner Olszewski having recently tore his Achilles.
Free agent acquisitions Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III and third-round draft pick Malachi Fields were the top receivers at minicamp this week.
Nabers, 22, had a record-breaking rookie season in 2024 after being selected with the sixth pick out of LSU. He caught a franchise-record 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns.
The talented wide receiver looked ready to build upon that success. He had 18 catches for 271 yards and two touchdowns prior to the injury in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers in his sophomore season.
His 127 receptions through the first 19 games of his career rank second to Beckham in NFL history for the most through 20 games.
