New York Giants training camp preview: Who rises to the top at WR?

The New York Giants are just days away from fully opening their 2026 training camp down at The Greenbrier in West Virginia. We've been previewing the team's various units in an effort to get our readers up to speed on the players and coaches who will be in attendance this year.

Many experts are concerned about the wide receiver room and rightfully so. There's a boatload of questions to be answered this summer and perhaps too many backstories to keep an eye on. I'm not as concerned, considering the Giants are destined to run the football more than throw it this year under John Harbaugh, and they have excellent pass catchers at tight end and running back that will eat up targets in the passing game.

That aside, we take a look at the eclectic group general manager Joe Schoen and Harbaugh have put together this offseason. There are 14 names altogether, with maybe eight roster spots in play.

The coaches

Matt Nagy, the former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator who can take responsibility for a lot of Patrick Mahomes' success, is now running the Giants' offense. Brian Callahan is in at quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator. Chad Hall, a holdover from the previous coaching staff where he was the assistant quarterbacks coach last season, takes over as wide receivers unti coach. He previously coached the wideouts in Jacksonville and Buffalo.

Who's returning?

Well, we know Malik Nabers is, and a bit earlier than expected, as the Giants have opted not to place him on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list to start camp. Nabers is still rehabbing from ACL and meniscus surgery and will be slowly ramped up this summer. But the questions about his readiness and role will hover over this team until the old Nabers makes an appearance. If he's ready, he'll be the Giants' No. 1. Will he get the league-high number of targets in this offense as he did under Brian Daboll? Probably not.

Darius Slayton is recovering from sports hernia surgery. The Giants have their longest-tenured player listed as a starter, but he'll have an army of players breathing down his neck in camp. Isaiah Hodgins and Jalin Hyatt are also back. Hodgins will have to show some value on special teams to stick, and Hyatt is one of the players getting a clean slate from Harbaugh this summer. He's a longshot to make the team at this point.

Who's new?

Schoen knew that Nabers' timeline to return would bump right up against the start of the season, so he went into overkill mode and signed a bevy of veterans this spring: Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin III, Braxton Berrios, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and some guy who looks like an older Odell Beckham Jr. I see where some who cover the team have this all figured out, but the reality is, no one has any idea how this group is going to shake out.

The Giants traded up in the third round in this April's NFL draft to select Notre Dame's Malachi Fields, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder who has been compared to such players as Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, Mike Evans and Plaxico Burress. The Giants can only hope he's half of any of those. So far, we have yet to see how and where they plan to deploy Fields.

The bubble squad

At the end of the roster, the Giants have four players they have been high on for a while now: Beaux Collins, Dalen Cambre, Xavier Gipson and Ryan Miller. However, they all enter camp as longshots to make the 53-man roster, and at least two of them could likely end up on the practice squad.

What to watch for...

Schoen dropped a cinderblock on an ant hill here. He loaded up the room with quantity; now the coaches and the football gods have to figure out the quality. If Nabers is close to his old self, a lot of anxiety will subside. The competition should be a fun one to watch. Second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart does not have a lot of history with this group other than Slayton. He only played in one game with Nabers last year.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants training camp preview: Who rises to the top at WR?