The New York Giants entered the week with two of their most important players in question and left Thursday practice with a clearer path into Sunday’s NFC East meeting with the Washington Commanders.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers sat out Wednesday’s session with soreness in the knee he tore last September, an absence that carried more weight than a routine midweek rest day.
The 23-year-old returned for Week 1 after recovering from a torn ACL and has said he is usually sore after games. What he felt Wednesday was sharper than that familiar ache, enough to keep him off the field and to raise concern that the surgically repaired joint might be flaring again.
The good news is that he was back at practice on Thursday, working in a limited capacity. Limited is not full, and the Giants will still have to manage him through the weekend, but his return to the practice field is the first real indication that he is tracking toward playing.
Left tackle Andrew Thomas followed a similar arc.
He has been dealing with a groin injury since the Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, an issue that has not cost him a game but has forced the club to be careful with a former All-Pro who anchors the line.
Thomas, too, was out Wednesday and limited Thursday.
For an offense that cannot afford to lose protection on the edge, seeing him back at work matters as much as Nabers’ return.
The timing is not incidental. New York has won two straight and sits alone atop the NFC East heading into Week 5.
A third consecutive victory would be the franchise’s first three-game streak in four years, dating to a four-game October run in 2022, the season of its most recent playoff appearance.
Washington arrives at 1-3 and has played its last two games without Jayden Daniels, who has been sidelined by a dislocated elbow. Daniels is expected back this weekend, which turns a matchup against a struggling division rival into something closer to a true test.
The Giants are not arriving whole themselves. Quarterback Jaxson Dart and edge rusher Brian Burns are both out for the rest of the season with knee injuries, and defensive lineman Chauncey Golston is unlikely to play Sunday.
He has missed practice two days running with a neck issue that head coach John Harbaugh has suggested could linger. Getting Nabers and Thomas through the week does not erase those absences.
It does mean the two players the club was most anxious about on Wednesday are no longer sitting out, which is the kind of incremental news a first-place team needs before a divisional game.
