Malik Nabers the same as Odell Beckham Jr.? That's a Giant miscalculation
Malik Nabers and Odell Beckham Jr. (inset) both came to the Giants after dazzling at LSU, but how similar are they? Credit: Mike Stobe; Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
When the Giants drafted a dynamic receiver out of LSU in April there were lots of comparisons made to the one they took from there a decade earlier. Before he even wore a Giants uniform the expectation was for Malik Nabers to become this generation’s Odell Beckham Jr., a record-setting player with the potential to take over games with head-shaking highlights and someone who could bring out the best from a quarterback and an offense.
Awesome!
After the Giants lost to the Commanders on Sunday, though, Nabers said things that were interpreted by some as diva-ish, malcontented, unhelpful and distracting to the team. And all of a sudden Nabers was once again being held up and compared to Beckham, only for his tongue rather than his talents.
Not so awesome.
His remarks caused many who still have Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur-shaped scars on their souls from the late 2010s to have flashbacks to that other outspoken wide receiver who eventually talked his way out of favor with the fan base and the organization. They immediately foresaw years of incessant griping (passive-aggressive or otherwise), unhappiness, frustration and the inevitable bad breakup in a few years’ time.
So let’s get this straight right now, before perception starts to become something close to reality.
Nabers is not Beckham. Not as a player. Not as a person. Not as a Giant. Their similarities end with the college they attended, the position they play and the team that drafted them. That’s all.
There are no red flags surrounding this rookie receiver and zero concern from within the organization that the relationship with him will turn sour . . . certainly not after he’s played in just seven games.
To recap: He was asked Sunday about that crazy statistical first half in which the Giants completed just four passes, and only one to a wide receiver, for minus-8 net yards. He responded by saying that he doesn’t call the plays but added: “When you run the clock out in the first half, you’re scratching in the second half to try to score points . . . You’ve got to be able to run. You’ve got to be able to pass. You can’t pick between half and half what you want to do.”
He was asked about the state of the 2-7 Giants and said: “You’ve got to build up. You’ve got to put the right people in place to be successful . . . You’ve got to get the right guys on the team to win.”
And he was asked what he saw from Washington quarterback and former LSU teammate Jayden Daniels. “Leading his team to win,” he said. “He’s going to do that every time he steps on the field.”
Nabers told Newsday on Thursday that no one — no coaches, no public relations officials, no front office personnel — made a peep to him about those Sunday comments which created such ripples and recollections outside the building. If anything, the Giants like his fire and honesty and his drive to improve himself and the team. They wanted the “dawg” when they selected him, bark and all.
“We did some great things on offense,” Nabers said on Thursday regarding this past game. “We ran the ball. [Tyrone] Tracy had some great carries. Motor [Devin Singletary] had some great carries. I would like to have caught the ball in the first half. I mean, I’m a receiver. But we did some great things in that half . . .It opened a lot of play-action in the second half and we were able to throw the ball a lot more. We would just like to be a more versatile offense in the beginning.”
Nothing wrong with that.
Dexter Lawrence, who has been through quasi-controversies himself over postgame quotes he’s delivered, laughed at the impulse to label Nabers’ soundbites and behavior as Beckham-like.
“People try to compare people so much in this world,” Lawrence told Newsday. “That’s ridiculous. He’s just being himself. He’s being honest. People want to twist honesty into something else. I know him as a person and as a player too. I think he was just being honest.”
Any cause for concern at all about his maturity? Any warning signs that Nabers might become a boat-rocker?
“Not that I can see,” Lawrence said.
Nor does anyone else in the organization. Including Nabers himself.
“I answered the question,” he said. “They asked me a question to say whether I liked the offense we were in and I said, ‘Well, I’m not the play-caller.’ You can’t ask me about the plays because I’m just running what the play-caller says.”
Nabers will make his debut on the world stage on Sunday with his first international game. It will be a chance to step further into the spotlight as a player. It will be an opportunity to score his first touchdown since he missed two games in early October because of a concussion.
More significantly, it will present an opening to alter the narrative around himself and his team.
“I think it’s weighing on everybody,” he said of the 2-7 record. “There’s nothing we can do about it now except try our best to change the direction.”
Of the season. Of the franchise. And most of all, of the conversation and comparisons that surround him.
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.