Giants Rookie Receiver Malik Nabers Gets Rare Opportunity from Brian Daboll

Daboll showed his trust in the team's first round draft pick during Friday's training camp practice.

Jul 26, 2024; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (9) gestures to a referee during training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. / Lucas Boland-USA TODAY Sports

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll doesn’t often go to a rookie player to ask him what he thinks about a play call, but on Friday, he made an exception.

That’s what he did during Friday’s practice with rookie receiver Malik Nabers, the team’s first-round pick. Nabers, who was on the receiving end of quarterback Daniel Jones’s lone deep ball completion of the day, revealed that he was given the opportunity to give his input on the play.

“It's a great feeling,” Nabers said after practice. “Dabs asked me what play I wanted to call, and I said, ‘Well, let’s throw a go ball. And (quarterback) Daniel (Jones) came up to me, like, ‘What do you want? Do you want to check out of the press (coverage)?’ I said, ‘Nah, off, press, just throw it up.’ He was like, ‘I got you.’ The chemistry showed.”

The Giants are counting on Nabers to inject life into their passing game, and so far, the rookie hasn’t disappointed. He had his way on Thursday against Deonte Banks, the Giants’ first-round pick from last year and the man they’ll be counting on to cover the opponent’s top receivers.

In fact, Nabers has looked unguardable since landing in East Rutherford, where he wants to continue building chemistry with Jones.

“It's been good. We spent some good time this summer together,” Jones said after the first training camp practice of the year. “He made some plays, and you haven't seen that (drops) much, but he'll be a big time for us. He's played well in the spring, and it has been good to be with him this summer.”

Nabers has drawn praise from his teammates and coaches alike.

“The sky is the limit, you know?” said receiver Allen Robinson II, who has taken Naber under his wing. Whenever you have a guy with the talent and the skillset that he has, he can take this thing however far he wants to.”

Nabers endeared himself to Daboll in part because of his fiery, competitive nature, which the equally fiery Daboll appreciates.

“His mentality is the mentality you need to have,” Daboll said. “He's humble but works extremely hard. … I told you I love the person. I love his competitive desire, his will, his grit, if you will. But he knows he's two days in. He's had an OTAs. He's not where he wants to be. No one is, but he's got the right mindset.”

While a fiery spirit could be detrimental if it’s not controlled, Daboll isn’t worried that Nabers might develop into a primadonna who demands the ball.

“He’s competitive. He wants to do well, and he's willing to do anything he can do to be as good as he can be,” he said.

But Nabers knows that he has to channel his emotions correctly.

“It's something that I have to pipe down a little bit,” he confessed. “Sometimes I might talk to myself, and I might go talk to Jaylin (Hyatt), and they'd be like either don't show it or just ‘next play.’ Cause you know, half of the time, sometimes I might miss a ball. It might be overthrown. I didn't look at it right. And I'd be like, ‘Damn, I missed that.’

“And sometimes I want to go back in time and try to see if I can catch that kind of ball, but it's the next play mentality. So, that's one of them. And just probably, I think you're talking about when I don't get the ball, I had to key that in college. That’s just how it is. That's how receivers are.”

“He knows he hasn't played in the league,” Daboll said of Nabers. “There's going to be some rough spots, whenever those come up, and we're here for him. He's here for us. We communicate. We work well together, but I don't want to let him lose who he is. Be who you are.”

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