Why the Giants' Receiver Competition Isn't Over Despite Nabers' Good News

New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers avoiding the physically unable to perform (PUP) list is great news ahead of the start of the team’s training camp.

The Giants announced on Thursday that Nabers is not among the three players who will start training camp on the PUP list, a big step forward in his recovery from last year's season-ending knee injury.

It is not, however, a sign that Nabers is ready for his full workload immediately — and that is why the receiver battle behind him is still very much alive.

The Pros of the Giants’ Decision to Keep Nabers Off PUP

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

By having Nabers avoid the PUP list, the Giants can now begin to ramp him up gradually over the next month or so. Had Nabers started on PUP, he would not have been allowed to practice in any capacity, with his on-field work limited to work on the side with a trainer.

But there is still a matter of Nabers not only getting his sea legs back as he builds himself back up to handle a full workload, but also addressing the mental side of his game.

“Understand when you come back from a knee…he'll still be building his way back to his ultimate full strength self,” head coach John Harbaugh said last month.

“He's still grinding. It's going to be a grind when he starts playing again too to get back right.”

That grind to fully get himself right is why the Giants receiver competition doesn’t really change. Regaining his physical strength, quickness and burst is one thing, but being able to handle the peaks and valleys and to take those first hits back once he has the ball in his hand will also take time for Nabers to adjust to.

Why The Receiver Battle Still Matters

In the interim, the Giants' competition at receiver will continue, and not just for the depth spots, but also to determine which receivers will be the best options to take on some of Nabers’s regular workload until all restrictions are fully lifted.

Besides all eyes being on Nabers’s every move this summer—and it may be several days at minimum before he’s a full participant in team drills as the plan is for the team to ramp him up—there will be great interest in how Odell Beckham Jr. and JuJu Smith-Schuster, two candidates to potentially share Nabers’s workload until he’s ready to pick up where he left off before his injury.

There is another reason why Nabers’s avoidance of PUP won’t change the receiver competition all that much: the future. Nabers, Darius Slayton, Malachi Fields, and Beaux Collins are the only receivers who are signed beyond 2026, meaning the Giants receiver room is about to undergo a major transition.

The team undoubtedly hopes to find a gem or two from among those receivers signed to one-year deals like Smith-Schuster, Calvin Austin, and Darnell Mooney to help tide them over next year so that they don’t have to rebuild the unit from the ground up completely.

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