Giants rookie Malik Nabers emerging as a star in the making

Malik Nabers has become a star.

He catches almost everything Giants quarterback Daniel Jones throws his way. He impacts the game. He impresses opponents.

“Tape don’t lie, man,” Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. said after the Giants defeated the Browns, 21-15, on Sunday. “Everything was pretty much accurate. Everything that we saw, they ran.”

It seems like a long time since an opponent credited the Giants in that fashion.

Think about it: The Browns said they knew what was coming, and they couldn’t stop the Giants.

Call it the Nabers Effect.

In Week 2 against the Washington Commanders, Nabers scored his first career touchdown and caught 10 of 18 targets for 127 yards.

In Week 3, he finished with 78 yards, catching eight of 12 targets with two touchdowns.

Nabers leads the NFL in targets, with 37.

There’s no telling where Nabers might take his game on Thursday night against the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium.

Giants coach Brian Daboll knows all of those numbers and has seen all of the plays, of course. But even he volunteered that another Nabers play impressed him, because it showed great instincts and perfect timing.

"I'd say the biggest play Malik made [against the Browns] was on a little throwback” to rookie tight end Theo Johnson, Daboll said. The play-call was designed to go big, but Jones’ arm was hit when he tried to find Johnson.

In a split second, Daboll went from anticipating a possible touchdown to being happy the play didn’t result in disaster.

“In that situation, it’s a risk-reward call,” the coach said. “I think we were getting man-to-man [coverage] and [Nabers] scoots out the back there, and I thought, ‘This might go’ for a touchdown. But for Nabers to have the awareness to knock the ball down, that play says more to me about Malik than some of the other things. Everyone can see the touchdowns, but the unselfish play, the smart play he made was a huge play in the game. Huge.”

As it turned out, Nabers' second touchdown gave the Giants a 21-7 cushion just before halftime and allowed the Giants to take control, to some degree. He has a knack of being in the right place at the right time.

Nabers became the youngest wide receiver (21 years, 56 days old) in NFL history with two receiving touchdowns in a game. His three receiving touchdowns this season are tied for the most in a Giants player's first three career games since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger along with Odell Beckham Jr. in 2014 and Bobby Johnson in 1984.

For all of this, Nabers is getting support from his fellow players, including Saquon Barkley, the former Giant and now Eagle, and Micah Parsons of the Cowboys, who will see Nabers on Thursday night. Parsons said this week that he tried to draft Nabers in the fifth round for his fantasy football team.

Nabers’ target percentage of 37.8 is the second-most in a player's first three games, trailing only the Rams' Puka Nacua's 42% through his first three games in 2023.

Nabers is among the youngest players in the NFL. Asked about Thursday night’s game against the Cowboys, he said, “I’m just excited to go out and play.”

Nabers hasn’t seemed wowed by his environment. About playing under the lights, he said, “No, it’s just a regular game.”

What about the opponent, the longtime rival Cowboys?

“It's football. A game is a game,” he said. “Every time I go out there, a game is a game. No matter what day it is, a game is a game. I’m just excited to go out and play.”

In some ways, Nabers might be the perfect receiver for Jones. Nabers seems almost as stoic as his quarterback. He also comes across as a a low-maintenance rookie who just wants to win.

There almost certainly will be times when defenses commit to not letting Nabers beat them. And if that happens, Jones said he is confident in all of the Giants' receivers.

“I think I'll continue to see what the defense is doing and read out the play and throw the ball where it's supposed to go,” Jones said. “So, if that's Malik, I'll continue to do that. If it's other people, then I'll do that, too. So, I have confidence in all our guys. And Malik's played well, but we’ve got a lot of good receivers.”

Jones was asked how he has changed since his last game against Dallas. The Cowboys dominated then, 49-17, last Nov. 12.

“I've played more, seen more, studied and improved,” Jones said. “Obviously, didn't go great last time, but we're confident, it's a new team. We're a new team, they're a new team, and we're excited for the opportunity.”

And this time, they have Nabers on their side.

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.