Malik Nabers gives Giants game-changer, but is he a season-changer?

Malik Nabers came to the Giants with expectations. Big ones. And first and foremost,   they are his own.

“When I was in college, we always said the receivers were the spark in the game,” Nabers said. “A tough grab or a spectacular catch? That fuels the offense. To have that in the receivers’ room, that’s a want, that’s a need.”

Nabers instantly fulfilled a Giants need. He already profiles as the team’s most dynamic receiver since Odell Beckham Jr., who also played at LSU.

In today’s NFL, the clearest path to a receiver demoralizing an opposing defense is with speed, quickness and toughness. Nabers checks all of those boxes.

It’s still early, but nothing has been too big for Nabers, as evidenced by a recent conversation he had with Brian Daboll.

“Dabes asked me in practice, 'How do you move on from a drop?' ” Nabers said. “I said, I don’t move on. And he said, ‘I’m going to need you to move on. It’s a next-play mentality. You’ve got to move on. There are a lot more plays to be made.’ ”

In practices during the run-up to the 2024 season, Nabers has shown himself to be a playmaker, one who expects to be a game-changer. The Giants will need him to deliver.

“I’m always hard on myself,” Nabers said, adding that he sees almost every ball as “a play I got to make.”

Selected sixth overall in April’s draft, Nabers  above all else  represents hope for the Giants and their fans. His physical gifts — namely toughness, ball skills and yards-after-catch ability — should help win games. That's something the 2023 Giants, who finished 6-11, did not do often enough.

Quarterback Daniel Jones enters his sixth season and first without Saquon Barkley, who's now an Eagle. Jones is coming off an ACL tear in Week 9 of the 2023 season, and his training camp has had its ups and downs.

In the Giants' second preseason game at Houston, Jones threw two interceptions, including a pick-6 from his own 5-yard line. He completed 11 of 18 passes for 138 yards and scrambled once for 12 yards. Jones threw a 44-yard bomb to Darius Slayton, easily his best throw of the game.

But more importantly, Jones said after that game that his knee felt “really good.”

This is an important season for Jones, and he knows it. He also has an important person in his corner.

When asked about Jones on the first day of August, Giants president and co-owner John Mara said: “I'm still happy we gave him that [$160 million] contract because I thought he played really well for us in 2022 . . . Let's give him a chance with a better offensive line with some weapons around him to see what he can do.”

Jones also will have a new offensive play-caller, as Daboll has taken over those responsibilities. Last season, the Giants averaged 11.8 points in their first 10 games and finished the season 29th in offensive efficiency. Hence the change from Mike Kafka, who remains the offensive coordinator.

Third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito said Daboll spent “a lot more” time with the quarterbacks in the months leading up to the season. Backup Drew Lock said it’s the most time he’s spent with a head coach since he entered the league in 2019.

Slayton, the most veteran of the receivers, said he believes that being the offensive play-caller comes naturally to Daboll.

"What got him here was calling plays,” Slayton said. “It's been kind of funny watching him have [such joy] to have the play sheet in his hands.”

The Giants have welcomed back kicker Graham Gano to his full-time gig. They will hope to avoid the kicker carousel they rode last season, when Randy Bullock and Mason Crosby were brought in to kick because Gano suffered a left knee injury.

On the defensive side, there seems to be a fresh enthusiasm under new coordinator Shane Bowen. As inside linebacker Bobby Okereke described it, “Bowen will hold anybody accountable, and I think that'll be a strength of our defense.”

Dexter Lawrence is on the short list when it comes to the best defensive tackles in the game. The offseason acquisition of Brian Burns already appears to be a win. The pass rusher already knew Lawrence from their younger days, and he's bought into everything Giants.

How much should Burns help?

“A lot,” Lawrence said. “His dog attitude is much needed. It’s just been a positive with me working off of him and him working off of me and sharing knowledge.”

Combining Burns’ athleticism with the playmaking ability of Kayvon Thibodeaux could contribute to a more effective and explosive defense. With some new pieces in the secondary, there could be early growing pains, though.

Lawrence told Newsday in August that the new defense has affected him in a good way.

“We’re just more free,” Lawrence said. “I think it’s built for the guys up front to eat. So we all are enjoying that. We don’t really have to worry about being a gap defense. Linebackers are flowing fast in this defense. We’re just more free to play in that way.”

Lawrence said he particularly liked this part of the new scheme: “The pass rush is really up to us. It’s based on the guys up front, and that’s where we want the pressure to be.”

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

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.