Giants’ first-round pick discusses joining his new team
Malik Nabers, the newest member of the New York Giants, has a message for Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito and anyone else who comes down the line as the team’s quarterback.
“When the ball’s in the quarterbacks hands, Malik’s gonna be open.”
That, of course, is what the Giants drafted Nabers, an explosive wide receiver from LSU, to do. Get open. Make plays. Make the quarterback’s life easier.
Sort of the way a wide receiver from LSU the Giants once drafted in Round 1 did for Eli Manning.
Nabers said of the great wide receivers who have come through LSU, like Odell Beckham Jr., D.J. Moore and Ja’Marr Chase, it would be Chase he would compare himself to.
“We’ve got that same frame,” he said. “I’m just going to try to be the best Malik Nabers I can possibly be.”
He did say he “wanted to be great” like several former LSU receivers.
“Just watching those guys, how they compete, how they run routes, how they were able to come from LSU and make a name for themselves in the NFL,” he said of the lineage. “So just hoping to follow in those guys’ footsteps and make a name for myself.”
Nabers said he did speak with Jones after being drafted.
“He was like, I’m happy you’re here. We’re going to hit the ground running,” Nabers said. “He’s going to learn about me, and I’m going to learn about him, and we’re going to get together.”
Nabers said separating from a defensive back is “second nature.”
“It’s just me being an athlete. Me being a dog. Always being that person a quarterback can rely on giving the ball to, having that confidence in myself from the quarterback,” he said.
Thursday night, Giants GM Joe Schoen spoke about Nabers’ grit and toughness.
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Nabers said he believes he was “born with” that competitiveness.
“I just never wanted to lose,” he said. “When I was competing with my cousin in the yard, we were always going against each other, but we always never wanted to lose. It made that sense of competition level higher.”
Nabers added that “if I’m able to move something that’s hurting, then I’m out there and still going 100 percent. I’m putting my body on the line for the team, and it’s not going to change.”
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