Cowboys leave CB2 unsettled as Nabers returns for Sunday Night opener

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys have one corner spot settled and another still in play as they prepare for a season opener that will put the secondary under a national spotlight.

Malik Nabers is back from the ACL tear that ended his 2025 season after four games, and New York opens Sunday Night Football at MetLife Stadium with the former sixth-overall pick healthy enough to practice fully this week.

Brian Schottenheimer confirmed that DaRon Bland has locked up one outside job. Who starts opposite him remains open. The coach’s answer was less about a depth chart than about how Dallas plans to deploy the room against Nabers and John Harbaugh’s offense.

“You’ll see them all play,” Schottenheimer said, describing a package-based corner rotation rather than a fixed CB2 starter for Week 1.

Nabers’ return raises the Sunday night stakes

Nabers tore his ACL in the Giants’ Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers last season. He finished 2025 with 18 catches for 271 yards and no touchdowns in those four games. Across two NFL seasons he has 127 receptions for 1,475 yards and nine touchdowns after making the Pro Bowl as a rookie.

The Giants listed him as a full participant Wednesday with a knee designation - one of five New York players on the report, all full, including tackle Andrew Thomas and tight end Theo Johnson.

Dallas put only two names on Wednesday’s report: offensive lineman Ajani Cornelius (knee, limited) and defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard (groin, full). Bullard’s full session was his first of the regular season. Schottenheimer said Bullard returned Monday, “did good,” and has been “kicking ass in rehab,” adding of Sunday: “I think so, based on today… he felt really, really good.”

The CB uncertainty is schematic, not injury-driven. Bland anchors one side. Everyone else will be asked to handle Nabers in man, zone, and nickel looks depending on the call.

That matters because the last time these clubs met in a high-volume passing game, Dallas’ secondary was already under stress. In the Week 2 overtime win last season, the Cowboys allowed then-Giants starter Russell Wilson to throw for 450 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception in a 40-37 finish at home.

Sunday’s rematch carries different personnel. Harbaugh takes over after 18 seasons in Baltimore following New York’s 4-13 campaign. Schottenheimer went 7-9-1 in his first year in Dallas and split the two meetings with the Giants.

Jaxson Dart enters year two as New York’s quarterback after taking over midseason in 2025. Dak Prescott returns after throwing for 4,552 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions last season, with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens again leading the receiving group.

Tyler Smith’s thumb surgery and IR-R placement - earliest return Week 5 against Tampa Bay, with T.J. Bass starting at left guard - remains a subplot. The louder Week 1 defensive question is whether a fluid corner rotation can contain Nabers on the road in prime time without a predictable pairing.

MetLife opener closes a long NFC East loop

Kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC, the first Sunday Night Football broadcast of the 2026 season. It is the 13th time Dallas has opened a season against New York. The Cowboys lead the all-time series 78-48-2. The clubs last met Jan. 4, when the Giants won 34-17 at MetLife in the 2025 finale.

That January result and last year’s 450-yard Wilson explosion both sit on the tape. Package football at corner can create mismatches as easily as it disguises coverage. With Bland fixed and the rest rotating, Dallas is leaning on flexibility rather than a named CB2 for Nabers’ first full look of the year.

Sunday night at MetLife will show whether that plan holds when Dart has the ball and Nabers runs the routes that made him a Pro Bowl rookie.

Sources

https://dallassportsjournal.com/cowboys-giants-week-1-injury-report-malik-nabers-jonathan-bullard/

https://victoriaadvocate.com/2026/09/10/before-trip-to-big-apple-cowboys-address-final-questions/