Giants WR Malik Nabers plays but is not targeted in rainy preseason opener vs. Lions
On a rainy Thursday night at MetLife Stadium, before a relatively sparse crowd, the Giants and the Detroit Lions finished up their week of playing against each other, first on the Giants’ practice field and then at MetLife Stadium.
Many of the Giants’ starters, including Daniel Jones, didn’t play in their 14-3 win.
The exceptions? Receivers Malik Nabers and Jalin Hyatt and cornerback Deonte Banks.
And none of them were on the field for long.
When backup quarterback Drew Lock left with a hip injury with 2:03 to go in the first quarter, the rest of the game belonged to Tommy DeVito.
Postgame, Daboll said DeVito is someone his teammates and coaches have confidence in.
“You’ve got to keep developing them,” Daboll said. “Quarterbacks are hard to find in this league.”
As for Nabers, he always seems to find ways to be open. Whether that was one of the draws for the Giants when they drafted him may or may not be true.
But for a rookie, he is savvy beyond his years. Jones already trusts him. And that’s always meaningful for a quarterback-receiver connection.
Nabers always seems to get open. But on this night, it was different.
On the Giants’ first play, Nabers was wide open. Lock did not throw him the ball. And in a flash, Nabers was out of the game.
Hyatt also didn’t connect with Lock. Hyatt did catch a pass for no gain later on the drive.
Eric Gray gave the Giants a 7-3 lead on a 48-yard touchdown run with 9:12 to play in the second quarter. The six-play drive covered 91 yards.
Gray added another touchdown on a 1-yard run for a 14-3 cushion with 4:49 left in the half.
“He’s a guy who does the right thing on and off the field,” Daboll said of Gray. “He’s gotten stronger as camp went on.”
What a night for Giants coach Brian Daboll to make his debut as the offensive play-caller.
Preseason or not, it has the feel of one of those decisions of which there is no going back.
Daboll, who took over the offensive play-calling this spring, will call Nabers’ number this season time and again. But Thursday night, given the wet field, it wasn’t the time for that
The Giants rushed for 155 yards, an emphasis Daboll said was in place for this game regardless of the weather.
Daboll last called plays during his final season with the Bills in 2021. He then accepted the job as coach of the Giants.
Daboll has been calling plays all spring and summer. And he did so as the Giants wrapped up their on-field work against the Lions, who arrived in the area early in the week for joint practices.
“Just calling the plays,” Daboll said this week. “Other than that, I have people that I rely on the last two years, communication-wise. That’s part of the process of going through all those things and seeing it. It’ll be good to do.”
Daboll also had praise for new defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.
“Defensively, I think we did a good job on, I think, four fourth downs,” Daboll said.
“I thought [Bowen] was really good. He got the plays in qucikly with the signal-callers, was very composed.I was pleased with the procedure of the coaching staff and of the players. I was happy with the staff and the communication aspect of it.”
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.
