Nabers says whether he plays Sunday is his call, not the Giants'

Malik Nabers said Thursday the decision on whether he plays Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys belongs to him, not the Giants coaching staff.

"They're leaving that decision up to me," Nabers told ESPN's Jordan Raanan.

Nabers has been a full practice participant all week and says he's confident in the knee. He tore his ACL in Week 4 of last season in a win over the Los Angeles Chargers. He had surgery Oct. 28, 2025 — one month to the day after the injury — performed by Dr. Daniel E. Cooper, the Cowboys' head team physician, according to Raanan. Nabers also suffered a meniscus tear alongside the ACL, The Athletic's Dan Duggan reported at the time. He underwent a second procedure earlier this year to relieve stiffness and clear out scar tissue, Raanan reported Thursday.

Nabers said he won't accept a pitch count imposed on him — though he said he'd propose one himself if he thought it were warranted. "If that's the case, then they're not letting the decision be on me," he said of a possible pitch count. "I would come to them and tell them I want to be on a pitch count. I wouldn't want anyone to tell me I'm going to be on a pitch count because at the end of the day it's my career and it's my body. If a pitch count is in the conversation, then I will lead that conversation. The decision will be on me."

He told Big Blue View's Ed Valentine the same thing in separate remarks Thursday. "It's my career and it's my body," Nabers said. "I know when I'm able to play." He described the rehab in blunter terms: "I grinded my ass off, excuse my language. I grinded, prayed hard, put in a consistent amount of work. I put in the work and I've done everything I can to be in this position right now to be able to make the decision to play or to not play."

Coach John Harbaugh declined Wednesday to say whether Nabers will be in the lineup. "I'm not going to tell you who's playing in the game," Harbaugh said, according to a transcript posted by the team. "I'm not going to tell you who's starting. I'm not going to tell you what package we have in. I'm not going to tell you what plays we're running. ... Because when you know, the Cowboys know or every other team we play knows. And that's not in the competitive interest of our football team." Harbaugh did call Nabers "ready to go" based on his practice work, a line Giants Wire used as the basis of its own Wednesday injury-report story.

Nabers is in his third NFL season and eligible for a contract extension after this season, Raanan noted in his story. He's carrying a $7,965,750 salary-cap number this season, according to Over the Cap. "There is a lot of football that I still have left to play," Nabers said. "So making a split decision on when am I [playing], when do I think I'm able to perform rather than just go out there, I think the coaches know that and I know that."

Harbaugh said directly that he's withholding the plan for competitive reasons, to keep every team the Giants play guessing, not just Dallas.

GiantsGator reported Thursday on Harbaugh's refusal to disclose the Week 1 plan. Nabers' remarks hours later are the first from either side spelling out, on the record, whose decision it actually is.

The Giants and Cowboys kick off Sunday night. The team has not indicated when — or whether — it will update Nabers' status before then.