Giants rookie WR Malik Nabers showing he can handle adversity well
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, right, stretches for a first down as he is tackled by Washington Commanders cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, left, during the second half of an NFL game in Landover, Md., Son unday. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
There are three games that stand out in Malik Nabers’ mind from his stellar college career. The first is the one against Florida State as a sophomore in 2022 and the others were last season against Ole Miss and Alabama.
What made those so special?
They were all losses for his LSU team. And while he did have a combined 23 catches for 315 yards on those three games, they were also ones in which he came away disappointed by either having a crucial drop or, in the case of the Ole Miss game, not being able to come down with a desperation pass to end the game.
“I fell pretty hard for those,” Nabers told Newsday on Wednesday of his rare failures.
So yeah, this most recent loss to the Commanders is going to stick with him for a while.
It was a dizzying star-making display indicative of the kind of receiver the Giants selected with their first round pick as Nabers had 10 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown. That put him in a three-way tie for second in the NFL with 15 receptions through two weeks. He’s first among rookies with 193 receiving yards (fourth overall), is just the second receiver to have at least 15 catches, 175 yards and a touchdown in his first two games (Anquan Boldin did it in 2003), and is the first rookie to post 10-125-1 or better since Ja’Marr Chase in 2022.
But it’s the one that got away that eats at Nabers. The fourth-down pass along the sideline in the fourth quarter that would have extended the Giants’ final drive and possibly led to points but instead handed the ball to the Commanders for a drive that resulted a game-winning field goal.
The ounce of bad outweighs the ton of good.
“How my head works is that all those plays are negative if we don’t get the win,” he said of his busy afternoon.
Obviously, the Giants would have preferred that Nabers make that catch – and every ensuing one for the rest of his time as their literal No. 1 receiver wearing that formerly retired jersey. But they also seemed intrigued to see how Nabers would handle his brush with failure. Would he blow it off? Stew over it? Be driven by it? Be distracted by it?
Coach Brian Daboll was intrigued by Nabers’ “dawg” mentality during the draft process and asked him pointed questions during their Combine interview about how he handles adversity.
In the days since that Sunday incompletion, Daboll and the Giants have gotten their answer. It appears to be one they like.
“I do know he's got the right mindset,” Daboll said Wednesday. “He controls the things he can control. Works extremely hard. Knows the game plans inside and out and I have a lot of confidence in him.”
Added teammate Wan’Dale Robinson: “It shows that he cares for sure. You never want to see your brother down, but it’s nice to see he wants to win that badly.”
Nabers said he knew people in the organization would be watching him with curiosity after the drop. He angrily shooed away Daboll on the bench and gave himself a postgame flogging in interviews since. He’s also spent extra time working on catching during practices.
“I feel like I handled it in the right way,” he said. “My coaches said I handled it the right way, my teammates did.”
Those teammates offered advice, too.
“They were just like it's not on me,” Nabers said. “That one play doesn't determine the whole game. We had a lot of different plays to change the outcome of the game. I had a lot of different talks with some of the veterans. I'm not going to speak on the conversations, but there was just a lot of uplifting from those veterans.”
Darius Slayton told Newsday he was one of those experienced voices in Nabers’ ear.
“It helps,” Slayton said of guidance, even for someone who has so quickly become the undisputed focal point of the offense. “Regardless of who you are it’s always helpful to get the reassurance of your teammates that, hey, we know you are a good player, we know you can make plays. Obviously he would have liked to make that one but it’s not a big deal, we’ll get it back.”
The ultimate response will come on Sunday against the Browns, though, when Nabers and the Giants are back on the field for the first time since he nearly single-handedly won them a game and then, in his mind at least, single-handedly lost it.
Slayton has seen the fire in Nabers this week. He believes he will channel it for the better.
“I don’t even want to say bounce back,” he said of predicting how Nabers will play on Sunday. “I think he’ll do what he did again and show that he is a really good player.”
With any luck he’ll be so good that this time it won’t be a game to remember.
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.