Giants rookies, locker room neighbors Malik Nabers, Elijah Chatman aren't flustered by bright lights
Giants defensive tackle Elijah Chatman, left, and wide receiver Malik Nabers. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki
Elijah Chatman had just finished one of his first practices with the Giants after making the 53-man roster late last month and after a quick shower was heading back to his locker. That’s when he saw the traffic jam of cameras and reporters blocking the way.
“It surprised me because I didn’t expect that much media attention,” he said to Newsday on Tuesday.
Only it wasn’t for him. All those lenses and microphones were aimed at Malik Nabers, the first-round pick. Chatman, whose locker is next to Nabers’, had to pay the price for it, though, standing off to the side dripping and wearing just a towel while the business of star-making was taken care of.
Turns out being Nabers’ neighbor in the locker room can be a bit of a drag.
“Now I’m used to it,” Chatman said of the almost daily crush. “I’m OK with waiting. It gives me time to cool off and it lets him talk to everyone he needs to talk to.”
At some point soon, though, there may be two rookies getting the attention in that far corner of the clubhouse where Nabers and Chatman thought perhaps that they might spend this season sitting next to each other unbothered and uninterrupted. Nabers has already become a focal point of the Giants’ offense and the team’s narrative, which is not a surprise given his pedigree, but Chatman, the undrafted defensive tackle who came to the Giants as a minicamp tryout and has continued to ascend all the way up to now having a key role in the starting rotation, is certainly a less expected contributor.
On Thursday night against the Cowboys, in their first prime-time game in the NFL, the two players, the very first rookie the Giants added this offseason and the very last one, are looking to add to their growing profiles.
Chatman played at SMU, right under the Cowboys’ noses in Dallas, before the Giants found him and brought him to New York. For him, this game is special.
“I’m ready,” Chatman said. “I’m excited to play them. The opportunity to play the Cowboys, it’s a blessing to me. Obviously they are one of the biggest teams in this country if not the biggest. I think they have the title ‘America’s Team.’ To be able to play them? To play against a quarterback like Dak Prescott? Man!”
This may be their bright-lights debut, but the two residents of the locker room’s Rook Nook don’t seem flustered by it. Or anything for that matter.
“You couldn’t even tell they were rookies to be honest with you,” said veteran defensive lineman Rakeem Nunes-Roches, who has the locker next to the first-year players and has assumed the role of RA in this freshman dorm, showing the two the ropes of life in the NFL. “They came here with poise, came here with presence and understanding. They carry themselves well.”
Most important, Nunes-Roches said, they keep the area neat. No stray cleats or equipment to trip over.
“They already had that,” he said. “Their parents did a good job with that.”
Nabers is off to a blistering start, already the first player in NFL history with at least 20 catches and three touchdowns in his first three games. Chatman is coming on strong, having recorded his first NFL sack against the Browns on Sunday. He had 18 pass rushing snaps and produced four pressures.
Despite both hailing from Louisiana, they grew up in different parts of the state and didn’t know each other when they first came to New York in the spring. They’ve since become at least a little more familiar with the other. Most of the time — particularly when the reporters aren’t around — they coexist in a relatively subdued harmony.
“As fellow rookies we already had a little [bond], but now it’s like he’s right here so we have no choice but to talk to each other,” Chatman said.
“He doesn’t really talk much,” Nabers said. “But I don’t really talk much either so it’s quiet on this side.”
When it comes to their football, though, their communication screams in all caps.
“He’s got some grit to him,” Nabers said of Chatman. “He’s feisty.”
Chatman, meanwhile, has been impressed with how Nabers has handled his football celebrity.
“He’s the same person every day from what I see,” he said. “He just goes out there and you can tell by the way he practices that everything is with intentions. He works the same way each and every day and it translates.”
These Giants are a team relying on a number of rookies to contribute. Tyler Nubin and Dru Phillips had been starting in the secondary (Phillips was ruled out with a calf injury for Thursday’s game against the Cowboys), Theo Johnson has seen significant time at tight end, and Tyrone Tracy has been taking handoffs as the second running back. For all of them, that means earning the respect of the veterans they play alongside.
“Rookie or not, that trust has to be mutual in order to go to the place you want to go,” Chatman said. “If this team wants to achieve success we all have to trust each other whether you are a rookie, a vet, second year, third year. It doesn’t matter. As long as we have that trust we can go wherever we want to go.”
Said Nabers: “You have to make plays when you are out there. It’s football at the end of the day no matter how old you are.”
No matter how you got here, too.
“One guy is the first-rounder but still works like he was a UDFA,” Nunez-Roche said. “And the other guy here, he’s performing like a first-rounder. It’s a beautiful thing to see. No matter where you came in at, it’s all about the work ethic. Just getting in the door is not enough. They keep showing up.
“You can’t do anything but tip your hat to them.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.