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For the first time in a while, a roster devoid of talent the primary factor that could hold the New York Giants back. This time around, the Giants have enough talent to do damage, but whether or not said talent can remain healthy for an entire 17-game season is up in the air, especially after last season.
New York saw their entire trifecta of Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo, and Malik Nabers go down last season, and their offense suffered in turn. But regardless of what off-field shenanigans Skattebo and Dart partake in, Nabers' status is the storyline that will has the chance to haunt the Giants the most.
After a record-breaking rookie season, the soon-to-be 23-year-old's campaign for an even better sophomore season was cut short. After just four starts and 271 yards last year, Nabers tore his ACL in Dart's first career start against the Los Angeles Chargers--ending his season before it truly began.
The similarities between Odell Beckham Jr. and Malik Nabers are obvious
In a recent column for Sports Illustrated, NFL insider Albert Breer was going over the storylines he thinks will define training camp, and Nabers' recovery was up there. He was previously looked at as a lock to be good to go against the Cowboys in Week 1, but some scary reports threw a wrench in that.
"Speaking of injuries, the murkiness around Malik Nabers’s return from a torn ACL has lingered, which will position him as a newsmaker as the Giants start camp at the Greenbrier in West Virginia," Breer wrote. "And rightfully so—that offense will look much different if Nabers is good to go."
And if I didn't know better, I would say the Giants have taken a time machine back about a decade. They have a Tom Coughlin-esque coach in John Harbaugh and Odell Beckham Jr. is back in New York, but it's almost like they have the second coming of young OBJ on the roster because of Nabers.
The similarities are uncanny: both wideouts set franchise records as a rookie after being selected in the first round of the NFL Draft out of LSU. And the only reason that Beckham Jr. isn't considered a future Hall of Famer is due to injuries, and now Nabers is starting to be held back by injury woes too.
It's the same paradox Big Blue dealt with a decade ago. If the Pro Bowler is out there at the start of training camp, he can build rapport with Dart and the offense will be much more dangerous. But if he's still sidelined and he's forced to miss the start of the year, it will reheat OBJ's 10-year-old nachos.
Just like with Odell Beckham Jr. in his hayday, the New York Giants can't afford to be without Malik Nabers for very long, but rushing him back would also do more harm than good. All we know for sure is that his second surgery complicated things to the point that OBJ injury parallels are in full force.
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This article was originally published on gmenhq.com as Malik Nabers has Giants dealing with a frightening case of deja vu.
