Malik Nabers Sets New Rookie Receiving Record with Performance Against Dallas

For all the grievances that New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers had with his team for not crafting up enough plays to get him the football, he certainly found his opportunities on Thursday night in Dallas and turned them into a new page within the NFL record books.

After making headlines by expressing his frustrations with the Giants offense related to his lack of targets in last Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nabers’ pleas were heard loud and clear as the Giants made him the focal point of their offensive attack against the Cowboys.

Following a couple games of quiet production by his standards, the 21-year-old receiver bounced back with a more adequate performance to quench his ambitions. The Giants targeted Nabers 13 times which he returned with 8 catches for 69 yards and an average catch of 8.6 yards to lead New York in aerial production in the 27-20 defeat.

The outing marked Nabers’ highest receiving line since Week 8 against the Pittsburgh Steelers and gave him his second-best catch count in the same span, but there was more to the numbers than just the in-game work.

Along with his eight grabs, the rookie further put himself back into the discussion by etching his name into another slab of league history, becoming the No. 1 ranked novice with 75 total catches through his first 10 career games.

8 catches on Thanksgiving keeps Malik Nabers on a historic pace among rookie receivers 🙌 pic.twitter.com/xgveHZki6i
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) November 29, 2024

What’s more impressive is the fact that Nabers joined some distinguished Giants company in his latest achievement, as he became the franchise’s third player since 1970 to record at least 64 catches in their first 10 games and he surpassed both former Giants Saquon Barkley (64) and Odell Beckham (71) who also shined in their respective rookie campaigns.

Despite his own feelings on his personal efforts, there is little doubting the Giants offense being anywhere near the mediocre level of passing production they’ve amassed without Nabers.

He stands as the only player with over 500 yards receiving and three receiving touchdowns at the end of Week 13 and is quite literally carrying a unit that is bottom five in air yardage metrics.

The season got off to a fast start for Nabers with three outings of at least eight receptions and two with over 100 yards, including his first matchup with the Cowboys in Week 4 when he amassed a season-high 12 catches for 115 yards and a long of 39 yards to keep the Giants in a close affair like their most recent one on Thanksgiving.

For the whole year, Nabers is completely outpacing his position group, both inside the Giants and the NFL, in overall production. He has made 75 total receptions on 116 targets for 740 yards and three scores and the former two stats beating out his nearest competitor in Wan’Dale Robinson by 12 and 293, respectively.

He also holds eight games with double-digit targets and only one with less than 50 receiving yards to his name. It is very hard to say he hasn’t been involved in the Giants game plan on a broad basis, but it’s understandable to see why he has reacted the way he does when the ball isn’t coming in his direction.

Nabers was drafted by the Giants for the job of taking his immense receiving talents on the perimeter and turning them into a hard to stop, No. 1 option for Daniel Jones and now the future quarterback of the organization. He came as the flashiest and arguably the most decorated receiver in college football last fall and with durable hands and separation ability could individually impact results of games for New York.

They saw that in two of the Giants’ close contests in the first month of the regular season, including their first win over the Cleveland Browns on the road. Nabers caught 10 balls, 127 yards and touchdown to nearly draw his team to victory over Washington and then topped it off with eight for 78 yards and two touchdowns in that hard nosed win over the Browns.

The complete opposite side of the spectrum arose in the Giants’ previous three games before Dallas. The offense didn’t find Nabers largely till late in the matchups when the game was seemingly out of hand and he watched as the rest of his receiving teammates didn’t put much of a dent in the opposing defense either.

It led to his infamous “what do you want me to do?” remark after the Tampa Bay game that rubbed some folks in the market the wrong way

For the final five games of the campaign, the easiest thing for Nabers to do is just to trust the game plan and that if he is open, the Giants will look to put the football in his hands to make the big plays. He can keep building up his rookie resume and set a tone for how the next season will look with a new face under center and become a force.

On the other side of the equation though, he needs to do a better job of securing the pigskins that will be sailed towards him in that time. Nabers has been dropping the ball with frequency in his last few starts, notching five in the last month and enough to be in the league’s top-5 for drop percentage.

It has been a problem that has plagued the entire Giants wide receiver room this season, who hold the second-highest drops mark of 26 only behind the aforementioned Browns. As the squad’s top producer in the air, Nabers needs to set an example and strengthen his fundamentals if he wants to be taken seriously as an elite NFL playmaker.

By surpassing two former Giants greats, Nabers is already showing that the franchise at least has an eye for gifted receiving talent. He has promise and a confident voice which is great for leadership in the locker room, but he must back it up with the other important numbers to round out his entire argument,

Who knows what damage he could still make to the record books if he does just that in the Giants’ home stretch of the 2024 season?

Malik Nabers Sets New Rookie Receiving Record with Performance Against Dallas

More New York Giants Coverage

New York Giants On SI on Social Media