Three Giants players tore an Achilles tendon this spring, none of them in a game, none of them in pads. Defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris went down first, then wide receiver and kick returner Gunner Olszewski was carted off on May 29, then undrafted rookie cornerback Thaddeus Dixon.
Veterans report to training camp on July 28, rookies on July 23, and John Harbaugh’s first summer in New York begins with a medical question he has already admitted he cannot fully answer. “Really, you look for answers and there are none,” Harbaugh told reporters after OTA practice No. 9, via Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. “You can’t predict tendons hardly at all, let alone Achilles, which are the worst.”
What the spring actually cost
Roy Robertson-Harris, NFL: New York Giants at Las Vegas Raiders
Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Robertson-Harris started all 17 games in 2025 and signed a two-year, $9 million deal carrying a $5.75 million cap hit in 2026. He tore the Achilles at OTAs and has not been placed on season-ending injured reserve, with Harbaugh saying there is a chance he returns late in the year. The subtraction lands on an interior defensive line already reshaped by the Dexter Lawrence trade.
Olszewski handled 26 kickoff returns for 682 yards last season, a 26.2-yard average, and he is done for the year. Dixon, a North Carolina corner the Giants signed as an undrafted free agent after a pre-draft visit, is done as well before taking an NFL snap.
Player Position Injury Status entering camp
Roy Robertson-Harris DT Torn Achilles (OTAs) Out; possible late-season return
Gunner Olszewski WR/KR Torn Achilles (OTAs) Out for the season
Thaddeus Dixon CB Torn Achilles (OTAs) Out for the season
Malik Nabers WR Knee (second procedure) Expected to open camp on PUP
Darius Slayton WR Core muscle surgery Rehabbing
Cam Skattebo RB Ankle On track; says he will be ready for Week 1
Harbaugh added technology, not rest
“We haven’t changed anything” about the practice schedule or the rigor, Harbaugh said, but “we’ve added things.” What he added is testing and monitoring: four new pieces of equipment for strength work and movement screening, plus individualized fitness data meant to tell each player where his own risk sits. Practice load is the first suspect whenever a team loses three players to the same tendon inside six weeks, and the head coach rejected that explanation outright.
“There’s no common denominators with any of the three guys, there’s no common denominators with loads or anything else,” Harbaugh said. “There is a common denominator with the movement pattern when they tore it. Kind of a reset, stepping back reset deal that happened. We try to caution our guys against that.”
That is a coach describing a mechanism rather than a cause, which is roughly where the medical literature sits on non-contact Achilles ruptures. The practical version, in Harbaugh’s words: “Turn over every stone, all hands on deck.”
Nabers, Slayton and Skattebo are the other half of the report
Malik Nabers looking on before a Giants game from Reuters Connect
Malik Nabers looks on before the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at MetLife Stadium. Credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Malik Nabers is set to open camp on the physically unable to perform list following a second procedure on his knee, and Darius Slayton is working back from core muscle surgery on a receiver depth chart that just lost its returner. Cam Skattebo is rehabbing an ankle and has told reporters he will be ready for Week 1. Abdul Carter sprained an ankle in June and was back on the field before the spring ended, the one piece of injury news this offseason that broke in the Giants’ favor.
New York went 4-13 in 2025 and rebuilt around youth, stacking four first-round picks over two drafts in Carter, Jaxson Dart, Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa. A roster that young carries thin veteran depth behind the starters, and camp at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs will test conditioning in a setting nobody on this roster has worked in before.
Camp Harbaugh starts with a subtraction
Harbaugh inherited a 4-13 team, traded away a Pro Bowl defensive tackle for the No. 10 pick, and then lost a 17-game starter, his kick returner, and a cornerback he wanted to develop, all without an opponent on the field. He has responded by hardening the process instead of softening the practice.
The Giants will find out at The Greenbrier whether that was the right call.
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Anthony Rivardo is the COO of Empire Sports Media and the host of Fireside Giants, a New York Giants ... More about Anthony Rivardo