Giants WR Malik Nabers Continues to Earn Top Grades in New Analysis

The Giants rookie wide receiver has had a mixed impact on the team’s offense in the first three quarters of his debut season.

Nov 28, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) catches a pass as Dallas Cowboys safety Malik Hooker (28) gives chase during the first half at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images / Chris Jones-Imagn Images

While football is a game where players can change their value from one season to the next, it becomes typical of those drafted in the first round every year to be evaluated and critiqued from the moment they step on the NFL gridiron. 

For New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, his selection by the team at the No. 6 spot came with hefty expectations. The LSU product was chosen to be their No. 1 pass option for former quarterback Daniel Jones and elevate that aspect of the offense that was mediocre in 2023. 

By passing up the opportunity to snag a quarterback at their slot or later down the board in the first round, the Giants were relying on Nabers to be a difference maker on the stat sheet every Sunday and his mindset hasn’t lacked in trying to match that responsibility.

Still, in looking back at the first three quarters of his professional debut, the returns have been quite mixed and it’s led to Bleacher Report’s own Brent Soblewski handing the wide receiver a grade of B for his early contributions made among fellow first round selections. 

“Immediate returns on the Giants' investment in wide receiver Malik Nabers looked great. Then, things began to change,” Soblewski said.

Indeed, had one asked any football evaluator to grade the performance of Nabers in the first quarter of the regular season, it's likely that analysis would have yielded an A-level grade. 

The rookie was sensational in his first chunk of action in the NFL, snagging a lead-leaguing 35 catches for 386 yards and three touchdowns that was fueling the Giants aerial attack. 

Not only was he pacing the 2024 receiving class and setting new records each game, Nabers was a magnet that the football was instantly attracted to. 

He posted three consecutive games with over 12 targets and turned two of them into 100+ yard outings with an average catch between 9.6 and 12.7 yards, good for a first down conversion on nearly every haul he made in that span. 

Nabers had also been one of the most potent pass catchers when facing man converge schemes. Per PFF, he is still one of the top-10 graded receivers in one-on-one coverages. 

Among rookies, he has dominated with his gifted hands and separation abilities, including tallying a class-high 34 targets which he’s converted into the second-best 221 yards and two touchdowns. 

As Soblewski notes, things have started to go the opposite direction for the novice and hand him his first test of adversity. He suffered a concussion in Week 4 on the tail end of his 12-catch performance against the Cowboys and was sidelined for two games as the offense was forced to adjust to producing without him. 

Upon his return, Nabers hasn’t always received the same amount of targets he was used to or expects from the system. Whether a result of the changing quarterbacks or the game plan, he has been voicing his complaints in a manner that has earned mixed reactions from those outside of the locker room. 

“I started getting the ball when it was 30-0," Nabers boldly told reporters after the Giants blowout loss at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12. "What do you want me to do?"

Nabers hasn’t been able to do much, finishing the last six games with 40 catches for 354 yards and zero touchdowns. He still has had multiple games with double-digit targets, but has only amassed more than seven grabs three times and more than 70 yards once. 

It looked like a campaign that was going to shatter rookie and league-wide standings over the course of the first month, but Nabers is down to 20th in total receiving yards, 33rd in yards per catch and outside of the top-50 position players in scores.

The only element he has been maintaining is his lead in the Giants receiving room which includes 75 receptions for 740 yards and an average of 74.0 yards per contest. 

He also recently broke a new rookie record with the aforementioned catches in a player’s first 10 games, including surpassing two former Giants in Odell Beckham Jr (71) and Saquon Barkley (64). 

At the same time, the ambitious rookie can’t say he’s been clean of any blame for the results of his first campaign. Nabers has been among the league’s highest drop artists by holding seven which is tied for third in that category and has seen most come in the Giants’ recent matchups. 

While it is admirable for a player of his age to not get caught up in those miscues, it is hard to convince the outside world, and the franchise, or your capabilities to change the game when you are mishandling the game-saving shots that come his direction. 

Nabers wants to become a consistent voice in the Giants locker room, but as Kayvon Thibodeaux noted, that comes with making the big plays on the field first. 

The good news is that Nabers has a fantastic opportunity ahead of him to flip the script against a weak Saints secondary that struggles against receivers in man coverage and is near the bottom of the NFL in opposing pass yards and average plays. 

With that sort of matchup, he needs to get the errors behind him and put his money where his mouth, or his hands, are to earn a better analysis before the final five weeks of the season are over. 

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