Malik Nabers Details Interesting Bond with Former Giants Wide Receiver

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers has appeared in just one game at the NFL level and his talents are already earning comparisons to great players that came before him. One such tie has been to a famous former Giants pass catcher, with whom Nabers has an odd connection going way back before the organization drafted the rookie. 

Since leaving the college ranks and joining the Giants for camp, Nabers has been admired for his vertical athleticism and nearly unstoppable hands that lit up the SEC for 89 catches and 14 touchdowns in 2023. Those intangibles were on display from the jump in the team’s preseason practices and contest with the Detroit Lions when the 21-year-old was Daniel Jones' favorite target and broke free from the Lions' secondary on numerous occasions in live action.

Ironically, playing for a school that breeds receivers, the young man’s skillset has quickly earned comparisons to an elder Tiger alum in Odell Beckham Jr., who lit up the conference in his final season before electrifying the Giants offense from 2014-18.

The two never crossed paths during Naber’s collegiate tenure, but were still able to form a unique relationship from when the rookie was just 11 years old, dreaming of getting to the same echelon as the veteran he contacted on social media.

However, Nabers didn’t reach out for advice. He sought to retrieve a hard-to-find hand-me-down from the fellow LSU star. 

“When I was 11 years old I sent him a text message… I was like ‘my hands are too big to fit gloves’,” Nabers told Kay Adams on the Up and Adams show during a Sunday visit to East Rutherford.

“They would only put so many gloves in the academy but I couldn’t fit into them because my hands were too big. So I reached out to him because I heard he had big hands and I was like bro I need some gloves, this and that, this and that.”

While Beckham Jr. didn’t initially respond to Naber’s Instagram message, he certainly kept tabs on the budding player’s journey through Death Valley. He likely watched the young buck notch two consecutive seasons of at least 72 receptions and 1,017 yards, including a FBS leading outing of 1, 569 yards and 14 scores in 2023 that earned Nabers an unanimous All-American and first team All-SEC selections. 

Beckham Jr. earned the same accolades during his junior season with the Tigers, amassing a career-high 52 receptions for 1,152 yards and eight touchdowns to go along with excellent special teams contributions. He also won the Paul Hornung Award for the nation's most versatile player, something the Giants believe they have for the first time since Beckham Jr. left the franchise via trade after the 2018 season. 

As Nabers now steps into the same spotlight his senior did a decade earlier, the same set of eyeballs will be staring down on him with expectations to be the No. 1 guy that reinvigorates the Giants' recently woeful offense. Beckham knows this feeling and seeing the similarities in Nabers, had to make sure the receiver was ready for the New York market. 

He waited until Nabers’s special night to welcome him to the NFL and has kept the connection going, but this time beyond the limits of Instagram direct message. 

“On the draft, he did (write back),” Nabers said. “He said ‘looks like you don’t need those gloves no more, now you are here.' So that was a pretty surreal moment that I had with Odell.”

He reached out a couple times to make sure...my head was on straight. It’s time to go get it now. I’m here now.”

Coming off his first preseason week with the Lions, Nabers is surely looking like he is getting after it for the Giants offense. He is becoming Daniel Jones’ most trusted weapon to uplift the offense that was one of the worst in total production last season and could be the top guy on the leaderboard when it’s all said and done.

If anything, the pressure is on him to post a 1,000-yard and double-digit TD performance immediately against elite competition, especially when his name is put in the same breath as a former Giant who tallied 91 catches for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns in his rookie season. 

Nevertheless, he seems prepared and confident to assume the role that Beckham had in his tenure with the team. He’ll have that support system behind him to advise him on how to handle the pressure, but Nabers knows how special he is and wants to create his own legacy in the Big Apple. The numbers may reach the same heights or greater, but it’s the skillset that will be the difference in his already flashy rookie season.

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