The Giants won a battle with the Chargers on Sunday, but they took a big hit when it comes to the overall war of the 2025 season.

Head coach Brian Daboll confirmed Monday afternoon that wide receiver Malik Nabers suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season.

Nabers, the No. 6 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, slammed his right knee into the turf at MetLife Stadium while leaping in an attempt to make a catch with 6:12 left in the second quarter.

“It’s obviously a tough loss for our football team, but we’ll regroup and we’ll get the guys ready to play that are here and be as good as we can be on the perimeter,” Daboll said. “I know those guys will do everything they can do to be as good as we can be. But certainly, when you lose one of your better players, that’s a big loss.”

He had two catches for 20 yards in the game at the time. The Giants were leading, 10-3, and went on to win, 21-18, for their first victory of the season.

Jalin Hyatt (played 38 percent of the offensive snaps) and Beaux Collins (played 28 percent of the offensive snaps) stepped in at receiver after Nabers’ injury alongside Wan’Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton.

Neither Hyatt nor Collins had a catch in the game.

Replacing Nabers for the rest of the season will be difficult considering he’s “one of the better players at his position in the league,” Daboll said. But the head coach indicated that the Giants won’t seek reinforcements via trade or free agency.

“Malik goes down and we have confidence in the guys that are behind (him), whether it’s Bo, whether it’s Hy, Gunner (Olszewski) knows multiple roles, we have some guys on the practice squad that we like,” Daboll said. “We’ll get ready to play with the guys that we have.”

It’s especially poor timing considering the Giants just turned to rookie Jaxson Dart at quarterback.

Dart threw for 111 yards and a touchdown to tight end Theo Johnson on Sunday. He also rushed for 54 yards and a touchdown, so the Giants hope his scrambling and ability to make plays on the run will help compensate for Nabers’ absence.

Asked about Dart taking some big hits and playing through a hurt hamstring, Daboll said Dart was “doing good” on Monday and will practice on Wednesday.

“You never want your quarterback taking a lot of hits, but certain quarterbacks are gonna play a certain way,” Daboll said. “There’s a lot of good ones in this league that play a certain way. We’re gonna try to do everything we can to protect Jaxson.

“I don’t question when he’s got the ball in his hands, him making the right decision. You can see maybe a play and say, ‘Hey, think about sliding here, bud.’ And he can give you a perspective of what he saw, or, ‘I didn’t think this.’ You’ve got to do a good job in the pocket. He can do a good job, too, of throwing the ball away sometimes and avoiding some of those hits.”

https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/29/giants-star-receiver-malik-nabers-out-for-season-with-torn-acl/