Returning from a torn ACL is a grind for any player, and plenty who suffer such a severe injury never return to their prior form. While there was some concern from fantasy football managers regarding Malik Nabers’ status as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL upon his return to the field this season, those early worries have largely been dismissed. Even with shaky quarterback play as the New York Giants start backups for the remainder of the season, is Nabers fully back to WR1 status in fantasy?
Is Malik Nabers a WR1 again?
Malik Nabers took the NFL by storm as a rookie back in 2024. The first-round selection was part of a draft class that seemed loaded at wideout, at least at the time – Marvin Harrison Jr., Rome Odunze and Brian Thomas Jr. were all fellow first-round picks – but he quickly separated above the pack. In his first pro season, Nabers broke the rookie receptions record and caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns. It was quite the debut for the LSU product as he commanded a whopping 32.2% target share and produced 2.32 YPRR with 18.24 FPPG, the latter of which ranked seventh at the position.
It seemed he was poised to repeat that kind of elite performance as a sophomore last season. The first few weeks saw him erupt for over 37 PPR points in a single game while taking on similar volume for the Giants, but Nabers’ campaign was cut short by a torn ACL in Week 4. That injury ended his season outright and started a long rehab process with the hope he’d be ready for Week 1 of 2026.
He did, indeed, make his return to action in the season opener. However, the first three weeks played out in somewhat unassuming fashion as Nabers struggled to put together a truly impressive performance in fantasy football. He posted 12.6, 8.9 and 8.6 PPR points over those first three games with just 12 catches for 96 yards and zero touchdowns across the sample. Jaxson Dart suffered a season-ending injury in Week 2, resulting in further trepidation about whether Nabers could be a WR1 again while coming off his own injury and missing his ascending quarterback.
Such worries have since been put to rest, though. In Week 4, the wideout finally got back on track with his first 100-yard performance of the year, also scoring his first touchdown to finish with 19.3 PPR points. In Week 5, he exploded with 43.9 PPR points in a true return to form – he caught 11 of his 19 targets for 121 yards and another score. He followed it up nicely this past Sunday, too, tallying a season-high 165 receiving yards on 12 grabs to finish with 29.6 PPR points. It’s tough to overstate just how incredible this stretch has been. Over these last three games, Nabers averages 26.9 FPPG with 132.7 YPG on a 31.5% target share.
It certainly sounds as though the 23-year-old receiver is fully back to his old self. Over the first three games of the season, he averaged only 1.35 YPRR, a figure that’s jumped to 3.02 in the last three games. Moreover, he’s seen a 31.5% target share with 13.7 looks per game, up from the 22.9% and 6.2 targets per game from the first three outings.
What we’ve seen here is that Nabers seems to have worked himself back up to game speed in recent weeks. On the full season, his 2.43 YPRR sits 19th among wideouts and he averages 17.1 FPPG on a 28.2% target share, which is right in line with what one expects from a fantasy WR1.
It’s important to note that Nabers may experience a bit more variance than some other top names at the position, especially with the uncertainty of the quarterback battle between Jameis Winston and J.J. McCarthy. However, his ability to get open and wind up peppered with targets regardless of who’s throwing the ball is what makes him so deadly in fantasy. Now that he’s commanding higher target share and seems more comfortable overall, he’s a player to pencil in as a WR1 moving forward thanks to the opportunity and the talent he continues to put on display.
