{"id":990607,"date":"2026-09-03T06:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/990607\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T06:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T06:39:16","slug":"isaiah-likely-already-sees-why-malik-nabers-is-giants-alpha-receiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/990607\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Likely already sees why Malik Nabers is Giants\u2019 \u2018alpha receiver\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tight end Isaiah Likely has never played a game with Malik Nabers as a teammate, but the newcomer to the Giants says he understands what Nabers can do to elevate an offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching him out there, running routes, I see why he\u2019s the alpha receiver that he is,\u2019\u2019 Likely said Wednesday. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a big difference when [No. 1] is out there on the field and [when he\u2019s] not. You can watch it on film all you want, but seeing it out there with your own eyes, it\u2019s definitely something.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likely spent his first four NFL seasons with the Ravens. He believes he can help Nabers on the field by taking some of the attention from opposing defenses away from the Giants\u2019 top target.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Giants signed tight end Isaiah Likely to a three-year, $40 million contract in the offseason.
\nCorey Sipkin for the NY Post Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being out there, trying to help Leek take as much, I want to say, double-bracket as much as he sees as possible to have him have his life be easy,\u2019\u2019 Likely said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After sitting out the individual drills a day earlier, Nabers \u201cwas out there from start to finish\u2019\u2019 Wednesday, according to head coach John Harbaugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malik Nabers of the New York Giants looks on before the start of a preseason game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Friday, August 28, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Running back Najee Harris signed with the Giants on Aug. 18<\/a> and has shown no sign that the torn Achilles he suffered in Week 4 last season with the Chargers will limit his ability to be the power running back he was with the Steelers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harris produced four consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons in his first four years in the NFL and, despite arriving so late in training camp, will be a part of the ground game at the start of this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in good shape, he came in in good shape,\u2019\u2019 Harbaugh said. \u201cHe\u2019s even leaned up a little bit. I think the football movement has kind of got him chiseled a little more than he was. He looks good, he looks like he\u2019s ready to play. He\u2019s gonna be ready to go.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harris could slot in as the No. 2 running back behind starter Cam Skattebo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Najee Harris was brought in by the Giants this summer to compete for a spot on their running back depth chart. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Backup C Bryan Hudson was held out of practice by the training staff; Harbaugh said \u201cit\u2019s not serious.\u2019\u2019 \u2026 The Giants signed offensive lineman Geno VanDeMark to the practice squad and released CB JT Woods. General manager Joe Schoen said he expects to add another veteran defensive tackle to the practice squad next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Giants will wear their classic 1980s-era blue uniforms for two Legacy Games this season: Oct. 4 vs. the Cardinals and Dec. 6 vs. the 49ers. MetLife Stadium will be rebranded for those games to include the \u201cGIANTS\u201d helmet design at midfield and in the end zones. The Week 4 game vs. the Cardinals will also honor the 40th anniversary of the 1986 championship team with a halftime ceremony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u201cVintage White\u2019\u2019 color rush uniforms will be worn in back-to-back games: Week 9 at Philadelphia and Week 10 vs. the Commanders on \u201cThursday Night Football.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tight end Isaiah Likely has never played a game with Malik Nabers as a teammate, but the newcomer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":990608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,4126,1917,56,255,2321,2097,6,9],"class_list":["post-990607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-football","tag-jets","tag-malik-nabers","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117205740006320606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/990608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}