Best of the Giants on WFAN: Why Jaxson Dart's response to huge hits proves he is ready

Craig Carton (0:00)

We'll get to the clunky conclusion of that first half that did make me a little nervous going at a half time of the jet game. But on Friday, there was a lot of uncertainty on if Malik Nabers was going to play. Based on his comments, based on how he was cleared, he was good to go, but it was really up to him. And when we listened to what he had to say late last week, it sounded like somebody that was going back and forth on if they would play. So we went around the room on Friday, kind of guessing, is Malik Nabers gonna play?

And you'll hear that Tiki Barber and myself both were very skeptical. Tiki Barber, does Malik Nabers play on Sunday night?

Tiki Barber (0:30)

I'm gonna stick with what my initial thought was two months ago. I'm saying no.

Craig Carton (0:34)

No stat prediction for Tiki, and I'm gonna agree with you. Yeah, we didn't think he was gonna play. But Sean Morris, to his credit, did think he was gonna play and supplied a stat prediction on Malik Nabers' performance. Let's see how he did.

Chris McMonigle (0:46)

Five catches, 56 yards, no touchdowns.

Craig Carton (0:49)

That's pretty impressive. He ended up going 6.69, no touchdowns.

Chris McMonigle (0:54)

I need one more catch of 14 yards in there.

Craig Carton (0:56)

Not, not too bad. The other crazy part about Malik Nabers' return was the story that Jaxson Dart told.

Tiki Barber (1:02)

This was a great story.

Craig Carton (1:03)

And sometimes when you hear a story, you're skeptical. You're like, eh, did that really happen? But both Malik Nabers and John Harbaugh have kind of confirmed that this occurred, that over the weekend, the jury was still out on if Malik was going to play. It was going to be Malik's decision. And so Jaxson Dart and John Harbaugh had an idea. I don't wanna say he's gonna miss the entire year, but that is in the back.

Tiki Barber (1:23)

Wrong one, wrong one.

Craig Carton (1:24)

Sorry about that. Here's the story about Jaxson Dart and Malik Nabers and John Harbaugh.

SPEAKER_4 (1:30)

Me and Coach Harbaugh's kind of had some conversations. He's like, you know what? I think that once he gets hit for the first time and realizes that he's okay, then he's gonna feel confident. So I think in his mind that triggered, oh, maybe I should tackle him right then and there. So we were all just standing there and then all of a sudden, Lee goes down on the ground and our team's super protective of him. So we all turned a look and it's Coach Harb's tackling Leake and then he pops up and he goes, see you're all good.

Craig Carton (1:58)

So John Harbaugh tackled Malik Nabers to prove, see, you'll be okay.

Tiki Barber (2:04)

But he had already committed to playing at that point. He was already, he'd already worked out. So it's like one of those things that Malik felt the energy as we kind of surmised and on after the warmup or the workout he did before the game, he felt good. And he went, no knee brace. He looked fine other than a little hamstring thing that he was kind of stretching out on the sidelines.

Craig Carton (2:25)

Thank God that was his other leg. Cause if it was the same leg, we all would have been freaking out.

Chris McMonigle (2:29)

And good job by NBC telling us immediately it was the other leg. Yeah.

Tiki Barber (2:33)

But I saw that hamstring and it made me come back to you really quick, Evan. I was like, dude, he's going to get a soft tissue injury. Cause Evan said this on Friday that, yeah, sometimes you worry when you don't have a ton of preseason and a ton of training camp that you get soft tissue injuries. And it's the first thing that popped in my head. I'm like, he's down for the rest of the game. Then he trots back out there and he's completely fine.

Craig Carton (2:55)

Can you tell us about the time that Tom Coughlin tackled you?

Tiki Barber (2:58)

He never did.

Craig Carton (2:58)

Never did?

Tiki Barber (2:59)

Never did.

Craig Carton (3:00)

Damn, I was expecting some wild story.

Tiki Barber (3:02)

I was harder to tackle than Malik Nabers.

Craig Carton (3:06)

I have to admit, when I hear that story, which I believe, because sometimes your story is like this and you're very, very skeptical. Just like I believe that Malik Nabers really was kind of going back on forth in if he should play or not. And he actually told a story after the game that his family didn't come to the game because he didn't want to disappoint them if he didn't play, which shows you that he was very much on the fence on playing or not. This was not some kind of elaborate game to keep the Dallas Cowboys guessing. But if John Harbaugh tackles Malik Nabers and hurts him, wouldn't that be like the just typical of New York football?