Giants rookie Malik Nabers shows he's one 'cool' customer in everything he does in Week 3 win
CLEVELAND
After a game in which he did nearly everything a player can possibly do to lead his team to a victory — from catching touchdown passes to running for first downs to morphing into a defensive back and breaking up a would-be interception, not to mention capping the most prolific three-game start to a career that a receiver has ever had in NFL history — Malik Nabers’ attention turned to the one area in which he still could use some improvement.
His passer rating against the Browns was a dreadful 39.6.
“Dang,” he said of that low number, which came thanks to an incompletion on a second-and-goal direct snap to him in the second quarter.
Even that one, though, was the right decision. He wanted to toss the ball to Daniel Jones, who had motioned out of the backfield, but the quarterback-turned-receiver was covered by All-Pro cornerback Denzel Ward, so the receiver-turned-quarterback chucked it away.
“[Brian Daboll] told me if you don’t have anything, throw it out of bounds,” Nabers said. “Cool.”
Nabers says that word a lot: Cool. He makes jumping catches along the sideline over a defender? Cool. He leaps high in the air in the end zone, adds a twist, then lands both feet inbounds? Cool.
Pull the Giants’ season back from the brink of disaster in Week 3 with a second straight star-making performance that this time helped them come away with a win, a 21-15 decision over the Browns at Huntington Bank Stadium?
You guessed it.
Others have had slightly more emphatic reactions to watching the rookie become the dominant piece of this offense with his wide array of dazzling skills.
“I was like ‘Oh, [expletive]!’ ” receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said of Nabers’ exploits, his first touchdown in particular. “That was a hell of a play.”
Daboll had the same R-rated thought, but out of frustration, when Jones threw a pass toward the far-left sideline that seemed destined to be intercepted. Cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. had Nabers boxed out better than Bill Russell could have, and he even had the ball in his hands, but Nabers simply jumped up over the defender and yanked it away from him.
“That was one hell of a catch,” Daboll said. “You have a guy like that, it doesn’t really matter about the matchup. Throw the ball up to him and trust that he’s going to go get it.”
That trust came from Jones, who gives Nabers a simple instruction for such risky throws: It is you, or nobody. If Nabers doesn’t make that play, the interception goes on Jones’ ledger.
“I’ll continue to trust him to go out there and get the ball and win his matchups,” Jones said.
Seems like a solid game plan.
With 23 receptions for 271 yards and three touchdowns, Nabers is the only player in the 105 years of the NFL to have at least 20 catches and at least three receiving touchdowns in his first three games. Can Ray Flaherty say that? Nope.
Odell Beckham Jr. had three touchdowns in his first three games during his Rookie of the Year season in 2014, but on only 10 catches.
“I had high expectations,” Nabers said of coming into the league as the sixth overall pick. “I feel like that dog mentality I have, it shows every time I am out on the field. [Daboll] is cooking up a lot of plays for me, the offense is trusting me to get that done and putting a lot of targets on my back to get the ball in my hands.It shows how much we want to be an explosive offense and I am a key factor in that offense.”
The quieter plays matter, too. There was the early fourth-quarter pass that Jones wanted to throw to Theo Johnson, but his arm was hit as he delivered it. Ward and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah each might have had a chance to intercept it to give Cleveland the ball inside the 20, but Nabers broke it up.
“For him to have the awareness to knock the ball down, that play to me says more about Malik than some of the other things,” Daboll said. “Everybody can see the touchdowns and stuff, but the selfless play, the smart play that he made, it was a huge play in the game. Huge.”
Earlier, when the Giants were still reeling from their sudden 7-0 deficit, they faced a fourth-and-1 at their own 43. They ran a sprint handoff to Nabers and he picked up two yards to continue a drive that wound up tying the score on Devin Singletary’s touchdown run.
“I knew it was coming to me,” Nabers said, noting the Giants had repped that play “10 times” in practices this week. “I need the ball in my hands when it’s time to get a first down. Third and long, third and short, fourth down. I feel good that my team expects me to have the ball in my hands.”
And the Giants? They’re glad to keep giving it to him in as many ways as possible. Don’t be surprised if they give him more opportunities to improve that passer rating going forward, too.
“He’s a good football player,” Daboll said. “Still a lot to work on, but I’ve said this numerous times, I’m glad we have him.”
Cool. Very cool.
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.