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Jordan Raanan, ESPN Staff Writer
LANDOVER, Md. — It was a Sunday afternoon in late 2011, months before Eli Manning & Co. would win their second Super Bowl in four years. A youngster in Southern Louisiana was playing football with his friends in the yard, oblivious to what was happening with the New York Giants more than a thousand miles away.
The boy walked over to his mom, who was sitting on an outdoor folding chair, and plopped down on the white ice chest that was positioned to her side. It was at this moment that Malik Nabers, 8 years old at the time, would spell out his destiny while twirling a football in the air.
Nabers looked at his mom as if he were about to solve the world’s problems.
“You know what, Mama? I’m going to play in the NFL one day,” Nabers said.
“You think so, Pop?” Tanya Nabers recalled in an interview with ESPN after the draft. “I call him Pop. He said, ‘Oh yeah!’ I said, ‘Well, it’s going to take a lot of work.’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘It’s not going to be easy, right?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘OK, I’ll support you, whatever you need from me, I got you.’
“And then he just walks off and goes to play when he sees some more kids out there. But that’s how it started. Eight years old.”
Nabers wasn’t a fan of any NFL team growing up. He said he didn’t even watch much football — but he trained.
“When he was in high school, maybe his sophomore year when most kids his age would be on the games or outside or probably spending the night at a friend’s house or whatever, Malik was always on his agility ladder or in the park with [coach Donald Fusilier of 4th Quarter Mentality], training, learning routes,” Tanya Nabers recalled.
And it paid off. Nabers now hits top speed effortlessly. He runs crisp routes, has great body control and plays like a running back with the ball in his hands.
Yet, Nabers wasn’t a big-time recruit coming out of Lafayette, Louisiana. He eventually caught the attention of LSU as a high school senior playing 7-on-7 football. He went on to star for three years with the Tigers, becoming a record-setting receiver and the sixth overall pick in the 2024 draft. Nabers is LSU’s career leader in receptions (189) and receiving yards (3,003).
Here they are now, all these years later, with Malik Nabers playing on Sundays for the Giants and Mama watching from Louisiana. He may be a rookie but already he is the centerpiece of the Giants’ offense, with 25 targets in two weeks, including 18 in Sunday’s loss to the Washington Commanders.
Nabers had his breakout game Sunday against his former college quarterback Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, even if the Giants lost 21-18. Nabers and Daniels are best friends after they dominated last year at LSU, with Daniels winning the Heisman Trophy and Nabers as his top playmaker. They speak every day, which included some trash talk earlier in the week and a bet the NFL made them cancel on who would win Offensive Rookie of the Year. They exchanged jerseys after the game.
Nabers finished with 10 catches for 127 yards and his first touchdown. But it was his final opportunity that left a sour taste in his mouth. On fourth down deep in Washington territory with the game tied and just over two minutes remaining, Nabers went to the ground on a pass near the sideline and had it clank off his hands, a play he usually makes.
“I’m disappointed,” Nabers said. “I mean, no matter how good of a game you can play, that last play came down to me.”
Coach Brian Daboll was asking Nabers on the sidelines what plays he wanted called. Just about everything, including the key fourth-down throw, was coming in his direction as the centerpiece of their offense. Nabers had 18 targets. No other Giant had more than four.
Malik Nabers scores his first NFL TD!
📺: #NYGvsWAS on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/m9EQCgxCRn— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
This is what New York envisioned when it passed on taking a quarterback in the NFL draft. The Giants gave Daniel Jones one last chance while trying to build around him.
That starts with Nabers, the explosive wide receiver who could be a key building block to turn this all around.
NABERS WENT INTO the NFL draft process facing some off-field questions stemming from a 2023 misdemeanor charge for carrying an illegal weapon that were later dropped.
Giants general manager Joe Schoen said the team uses an “extensive process” to review a players’ background.
Nabers checked out.
“We’re very comfortable with the players we turn the card in on,” Schoen said.
The more they looked, the more they saw a young man who wanted to be great. The Giants lauded Nabers’ competitive nature.
“Not really doing too much outside of ball. Just more so chilling and relaxing,” Giants wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said. “You can tell all he really wants to do is go out there and make plays. He’s worried about ball.”
LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton was among Nabers’ biggest supporters during the pre-draft process. He is considered a mentor and trusted resource who talked with numerous teams, including the Giants, on Nabers’ behalf.
Hankton, who was the first call Nabers made after the arrest and was among those who accompanied him to the draft, is unequivocally sold.
“I stand on the table for him,” Hankton said before the draft. “No doubt. No hesitation.”
Hankton says Nabers has a rare competitive nature that is part of what attracted the Giants. Sometimes, that can be looked at as a negative, but Hankton would rather have to reel in that competitiveness rather than rev it up.
Those who know Nabers best say he’s soft spoken. He doesn’t necessarily say a lot, but when he does, it has substance. He’s honest, sometimes to a fault. He can be too candid. It’s nothing the Giants have seen or consider an issue, even in the pre-draft process.
They’re all-in on Nabers.
NABERS IS A small-town native experiencing big-city pressure. His every word, every movement dissected.
He accidentally called quarterback Daniel Jones “Janiel Dones” at his introductory news conference. He attributed it to the similarities in his current and former quarterback’s names. It’s a clip that will likely never go away.
“My words get twisted around a lot,” Nabers said. “But I can’t do anything about that. The people in this locker room, we know what’s going on. So with the outside noise, it really doesn’t make any sense.”
When asked in the lead-up to the Washington game how he really felt about his quarterback, there was no indecision.
“I believe in him,” Nabers said.
Jones had his best game since Week 2 of last season, not coincidentally the last time he threw a touchdown pass. He finished 16-of-28 for 178 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Certainly, the Giants believe in Nabers. He is already an integral part of their offense.
Daboll’s plan to make sure he got more involved entering Week 2: “Throw him the ball.”
Simple, yet obvious, and something that is unlikely to change, despite the final attempt in his direction.
It was effective on Sunday.