Malik Nabers passes concussion protocol, cleared to return for New York Giants

The New York Giants have announced that wide receiver Malik Nabers has cleared concussion protocol and will be available to play this weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Nabers was evaluated by the independent neurological consultant and cleared, the team announced on Thursday evening.

The rookie receiver has already turned into a star for the Giants. He’s the team’s leading receiver despite playing in only four of the team’s six games so far.

Malik Nabers has totaled 35 catches for 386 yards and three touchdowns, while he has also rushed three times for no net gain. He is coming off one of his most productive games, a 12-catch, 115-yard outing against the Dallas Cowboys.

But Nabers was injured against the Cowboys, and he’s been in concussion protocol ever since.

Giants coach Brian Daboll had provided an update on his status this week.

“Malik has made progress,” Daboll said, per the team’s official website. “Good progress where he’s able to come out here today and practice. He’ll have a red jersey on, but he passed some of the steps that he needed to do. He’s better, which is a good thing. So, we’ll see. We’ll go through today. I’m optimistic, but I’m not going to push anything. That type of injury you want to be smart with. But he is doing much better, and it’ll be good to have him out here at practice today.”

The Giants drafted Malik Nabers in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft, taking him with the No. 6 overall pick.

During the offseason, Daboll revealed how he would instill confidence in Malik Nabers, something that has apparently been quite effective.

“I’d say the biggest thing is just to try to teach him how we do things,” Daboll said. “Teach him the system to let him feel confident when he goes out there.

“Again, we’ve put in just a few plays, we’ve been going through phase two and [will] probably put in over two-three hundred plays from the start of phase one all the way to phase three. So what you don’t want is you don’t want players — to give them so much where they’re not able to use their full athletic ability.”

Malik Nabers seems to be having few problems with that, and now he’ll get a chance to return to the action.