Malik Nabers Reveals Advice He's Trying to Follow to Become a Better Player

Malik Nabers wants to win more than anything, so much so that he beats himself up when he doesn’t do all he can to help the cause.

Such was the case for the New York Giants receiver, who had a game to forget in New York’s 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on Thursday night. He lost his first fumble of the season.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re thinking about plays that could have been a difference in the game, and that could have been one of those,” Nabers said of the fumble.

“We were in the red zone, could have got a field goal or a touchdown, and sadly went away just off a mistake that I made. But I mean, try to do better, try to be better, and I’ll be better at protecting the football, having awareness of where I am, and just like I said, protecting the football to give the offense opportunity to score points on that drive.”

Nabers, who explained that he left the postgame locker room to attend to a family emergency, finished the game with five receptions for 44 yards. He was also the intended target on the Commanders’ game-sealing interception by defensive back Rasul Douglas, a play on which Nabers has drawn criticism for not fighting to break it up.

“I mean, seeing the ball go up at the time, didn’t really see him or where he was,” he said about that play. “My head is looking up at the ball, even though he was driving on the ball. So, just seeing how high the ball was and just waiting for it to come down and made a jump to catch the ball and then got hit and then he made a play.”

Nabers tries not to let it show in public, but he takes his performance shortcomings and the losses that follow personally.

As a competitor, it’s easy for him to be swallowed up by those mishaps, but Nabers credited quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan for helping him keep his feet on the ground and not be consumed by things that happened in the past.

“We had a good talk, and he said some things in our conversation,” Nabers said of Callahan. “He was just like, ‘Just play the one play that we call, don’t try to do too much. Don’t try to do a lot on the play; we need you to be you. So just be you at the end of the day.’

“I’m getting a lot of different coverages on my side. I’m getting a lot of cloud, getting a lot of double teams. So, every opportunity I have to get the football, I think I’m just trying to do too much with the football instead of just letting the game come to me and play the game.”

The chat, Nabers said, wasn’t specifically about Thursday’s game but about the season in general. Part of it also involved working with Nabers to get him open to make plays.

“We were just talking about overall on the sideline, and just, they asked me what I see, asked me what calls and some of the calls would be just opportunities for us to get a unique play, whether it be me getting open or anybody else being open. So, just like I said, just letting the game come to us,” he said.

Nabers admitted that there are times when he gets in his own way and that he’s trying to work on not letting that consume what he brings to the table.

“I have my moments, but I continue to try to realize that I only can control the controllables,” he said. “I can’t just freely run any route I want. I have to run specifically the routes that I’m given.

“I got to be okay with having my opportunities and making those opportunities count. And just knowing when I got to help get somebody else open and help the team win as much as I can.”

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