Malik Nabers Opens Up About Giants' Quarterback Switch

The relative lack of big plays from Nabers in the early going could be one of the reasons why the Giants were compelled to finally acquiesce to the cult of Dart: thought there's a sterling outlier (a career-best 167 yards with a couple of touchdowns in Week 2's loss to the Dallas Cowboys), it was bookended by catching only seven on 19 targets.

Nabers remained diplomatic in his Wednesday statements, remarking that the deep-ball potential of both Dart and Wilson is fairly equal in the grand scheme of things and hinting that it won't take much of an adjustment when the former takes the field against the Bolts.

"You take a look at [Dart's] film, he’s pushed the ball down the field the same way," Nabers said. "I was watching a film with Dabs during the offseason. He throws a pretty good deep ball ... He's athletic, so that's a help to the offense also. But I'm excited to see him go out and play."

In a darkly humorous twist, the sophomore Nabers may well be used to seeing change at the top of the passing depth chart: the Giants had more passers than wins last season, as four different men (Tim Boyle, Tommy DeVito, Daniel Jones, Drew Lock) threw at least 20 passes during last year's 3-14 campaign.

"It's hard, but we're going to support [Dart]," Nabers said. "We're going to do our best to help make sure he's prepared, help show he's ready, and we're going to help him lead. We're going to do what everybody else was doing when I was a rookie, the same way, helping me. We're going to uplift his spirits and help him during the game as well. If something goes bad, we'll just uplift him and continue to roll."

Even if wins are already an afterthought, Giants fans certainly hope that Sunday is the first of many collaborations between the offensive triumvirate of Nabers, Dart, and running back Cam Skattebo, the primary yields of the last two drafts.

Time will tell if Nabers can partake in the awaited debut, as he's still nursing a shoulder injury sustained in Sunday's loss to Kansas City, one that saw him earn just 13 yards on a couple of receptions.

Beyond their shared endeavors in the SEC brotherhood, the former LSU Tiger Nabers has little experience with Dart, whose preseason entries were staged with the former as a spectator. Despite the relative inexperience, Nabers is pleased with the way Dart has conducted himself in his first two official weeks with a lower-case NY on his helmet.

"He's going to continue to fight until the clock is at zero and his team is victorious," Nabers said of Dart. "That's a great person to have at quarterback right now. I'm not saying that Russ wasn't doing the same thing. I'm just saying, from his college experience."

"I think he's going to mature," Nabers continued. "He's really mature enough to understand, and I think he's going to take those key elements.

"Whether he makes a mistake, he's going to learn from it. I can see that sometimes I might come up to him and tell him, and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, I know. I should have done that.’ So, he already knows, he's already making his adjustments on things that he's learning."