Giants' Malik Nabers confident his game will translate at the professional level
Malik Nabers with Giants management at Giants Training Center after announcing Nabers as the teams newest draft pick. April 26, 2024. Credit: Ed Quinn
Giants first-round pick Malik Nabers arrived at the team’s facility on Friday afternoon.
Nabers played collegiately at LSU. Choosing a receiver from LSU should sound familiar. Odell Beckham Jr. — the Giants’ first-round pick in 2014 — traveled the same path.
“[I’ve] just been thanking God that I’m finally here,” Nabors said at his first Giants news conference. “The process is over with. I can finally know what team I’m going to.”
As he assimilates to the NFL game, there will be comparisons with other heralded receivers from LSU, including Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase.
Nabers said his game translates best to Chase’s.
“We’ve got that same frame,” Nabers said. “I get a lot of comparisons. I’m just focusing on trying to be the best Malik Nabers I can possibly be.”
The Giants likely will settle for that. They don’t have enough difference-makers on their roster.
One of Nabers’ best traits on the college field was his ability to separate from a defender. The NFL game is different, of course, but he said he is confident that those skills will translate to the pro game.
“It’s just second nature, me being an athlete, me being a dog,” Nabers said. “Just going out there and always being that person a quarterback can rely on, giving the ball to, having that confidence in myself and the quarterback. When the ball is in the quarterback’s hands, Malik is going to be open. I’m glad I had that quarterback this year that was able to do that.”
That quarterback was Jaylen Daniels, drafted second overall by the Commanders on Thursday night.
One of the ways Nabers can best separate from a defender and make life easier for his quarterback — presumably Daniel Jones — is to rely on what Nabers calls his “Spiderman talent.”
“When I feel somebody on the field, I know how close out of bounds is,” Nabers said. “I just know how to react to the ball, late, late hands, understanding where the defender can be on my route.”
He added that he is still working on getting out of his routes more quickly and using his hands better.
During the draft process, Bill Belichick said Nabers’ competitiveness and toughness stood out.
“I believe I was born with it,” Nabers said. “I picked it up more and more as I got older, but I just never wanted to lose. When I was competing with my cousin in the yard, we were always going against each other but we always never wanted to lose. It made that sense of competition level higher.”
Nabers said he has talked to Jones, who likely is particularly glad to have Nabers join Wan’Dale Robinson and Jalin Hyatt as targets.
In their conversation, Jones told Nabers that he is happy the receiver was drafted by the Giants.
“We’re going to hit the ground running,” Nabers said. “He’s going to learn about me, I’m going to learn about him, and we’re going to get together.”
The two have a lot of work ahead of them.
“I’ll wait until I get here [for practices] to see all of that,” Nabers said. “I’m just happy to be here. Great organization here, so I’m just happy to be here.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
