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Aug 4, 2025; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) on the field during training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

NY Giants WR Malik Nabers Named Among NFL's Most Intriguing Players

Originally posted on New York Giants on SI
By Stephen Lebitsch | Last updated Sep 2, 2025 10:00 AM ET

For as much as New York Giants fans enjoyed watching wide receiver Malik Nabers, one of the few bright spots in their underperforming offensive lineup, do his thing while taking the NFL aerial game by storm as a rookie last season, the next thing they probably want to know is whether he can outdo his first-year production in 2025.

In case one forgot, Nabers accomplished an initial resume rarely seen before in the pros, despite the traditional factors stacked against him.

He led the Giants' offense with a new rookie record 109 catches for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games, all while having to haul in acrobatic catches and light a fire in the unit that dealt with sorely inconsistent play from the quarterback room.

Nabers, who was taken with the No. 6 pick in the 2024 draft, was like Ol' Reliable whenever New York needed any semblance of progress in the offensive realm. He led the league with a 30.7% team target share, which was also the second-highest for a rookie in the previous 25 seasons. He converted 18 of his 39 contested catches at a 46.2% rate, ranking among the best players at his position.

Of course, the 22-year-old wasn't perfect, including hanging around the top of the league in drops (8) with some of his cough-ups happening in critical moments of select games where the Giants were actually in contention for the win down the stretch.

That said, it's hard to argue that the Giants' offense wouldn't have been more dysfunctional without Nabers' outstanding efforts.

Football is a team sport that requires contributions from all eleven players, but Nabers was the heartbeat of the team's operation. That figure is likely to continue into the 2025 campaign.

But did we see the best of the electric LSU product in just his first year in blue? The Athletic's Mike Jones doesn't seem to think so, putting the Giants' top receiving threat among his list of the 25 most intriguing NFL players to watch this season, thanks to a new passing partner standing with him in the huddle.

Can Russell Wilson Get Even More Out of Malik Nabers?

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Even though he was targeted a whopping 170 times, falling just one shy of Cincinnati's Ja'Marr Chase for that category, there were often times when the Giants' carousel of quarterbacks still missed Malik Nabers, and it did admittingly put a cap to the unfathomable production he was already stockpiling as a rookie.

That was especially the case when the Giants rarely attempted to push the football downfield. Nabers posted an impressive 96.8 deep receiving grade on the third-best 29 targets last season, but only managed to connect with the ball seven times for 216 yards and two touchdowns, which didn't even rank in the top 25 players in the vertical department.

It's not as if one could blame Nabers' drops for affecting his efficiency, as he only recorded one on those same deep passing looks. What was instead lacking was an experienced quarterback who had the proven ability to unleash big shots and drop them cleanly into the breadbasket of his talented pass catchers.

Now that Nabers will be paired with Russell Wilson this season, all that figures to swing back in the receiver's favor. Wilson was the fourth-highest graded signal caller on throws of 20+ air yards in 2024, and he completed half of his attempts (44) for nearly 700 yards and five touchdowns.

He knows the uber-gifted teammate he now has in his new Giants' arsenal in Nabers, who averaged 7.45 yards per route run and an average distance of target of 27.4 yards on long balls. There is no doubt that Wilson is going to look to sling it to his new favorite target, who can go up and get it from the most congested of throwing lanes.

The real Giants observers also know that the franchise is going to need more of that this season if they want to compete in their arduous schedule, which is lined up with playoff opponents from last year's picture.

They managed to find it just 11.1% of the time last fall, but with a duo of arguably their best gunslinger and receiver in the last decade, the offense will not be simple, and a rebound is within reach so long as everyone stays healthy.

So is the chance that Nabers maximizes his new opportunity with an upgraded quarterback and outperforms his debut stat sheet that will remain in Giants rookie infamy for some time.

How much is uncertain, but he certainly has more room to grow and a skill set to showcase in the NFL. It will be exciting to see how these two players revive the Giants' once lackluster offense into respectability again.

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This article first appeared on New York Giants on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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