Receiver Malik Nabers knows that he can be something special with the New York Giants.
He’s already shown glimpses of that as a rookie when he fought his way to a 1,000-yard season and a franchise record 109 receptions.
So impressive was Nabers that Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who last summer famously asked Nabers for a play he wanted to run, continues to lean on the second-year player for opinions about the offense, such as various players they might have been considering adding in the offseason.
“I think Dabs did a great job of asking me questions about making moves, and me and him were in contact about moves to be made,” Nabers said Wednesday following the Giants’ first practice of the summer.
“That was a great job of him reaching out to the players about things that we were missing that we want.”
Nabers’s feedback didn’t fall on deaf ears, as the Giants did incorporate some of his suggestions, something for which he was grateful to have been asked.
“I feel like it shows the confidence that he has in me, the confidence that the organization has in me, and I'm hoping that we made some of the great decisions to be made,” Nabers said.
Nabers is ready to do his part in making the Giants' offense great again. After missing the entire spring while managing a toe issue, the former LSU star had himself a busy and productive first day of practice that saw him catch three touchdowns.
There’s a lot more where that came from, too, as Nabers aspires to be one of, if not the best, receivers in the league.
“Expectations are always high for me, but the work will show during the season, whether you stayed at home doing nothing or you put your foot forward and try to get better,” he said.
“I think I did a great job this offseason of trying to get better, so the work will show in the season.”
That Nabers isn’t resting on his laurels undoubtedly warms the hearts inside 1925 Drive.
“There’s a lot more success that I wanted to have,” he said. “I missed two games. Moving forward, what I know now is that I can play in the league and do great things, but it's all about how you look at last year. I try to clean up a lot of little mental errors, little steps that I had last year.
“I was just locked in on finding those little things to better myself. I feel like once you better yourself, every year in the league, you start to make more and more progress as you go. That's the biggest step that I took.”
Nabers believes that, given his growth and the overall talent, including new quarterback Russell Wilson, the Giants' offense can be something special.
“I think we can be very, very explosive,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talent on our side of the football. We just have to load the mental errors down, make sure we're all confident in what we're doing, and I'll say the sky is the limit for us.
“We’ve just got to narrow some of the little things down, and we should be up and rolling.”
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