Those who know Malik Nabers believe Giants have a star at WR
EAST RUTHERFORD – When Donald Fusilier closes his eyes and thinks on the 2024 NFL draft two decades from now, his mind will immediately go to the steakhouse inside the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit.
Malik Nabers, his mentee in football and in life, was still a draft hopeful, not yet the No. 6 overall selection of the New York Giants that he would become the following night.
The most electrifying player Fusilier has ever coached reminded all those in his inner circle – a table of 10 family members and friends, including his mother, Tonya – of what each person meant in his journey from the athletic fields of Lafayette, Louisiana, to the precipice of NFL stardom in the Big Apple.
“Malik went around the table, took his time telling every person why they were there, why they were special to him,” Fusilier recalled for The Record and NorthJersey.com in a phone conversation this week. “There were no cameras, just a chance to show what he’s really about. He wants to be great, and he will be great because of who he is to everyone that matters to him.”
The Giants believe Nabers will be the player who changes their offense with a competitiveness and a toughness always on display, the humility to handle all that comes with the position he now finds himself in, not to mention the confidence to convince others of that immense potential.
At 20 years old, Nabers stepped onto the practice field for the first time with the Giants on Friday as part of the team’s rookie camp with great expectations. The tenures of Giants general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll now intersect with a playmaker who has had something to prove for
seemingly his entire athletic life.
And this was indeed a moment worth cherishing for Nabers — he was born for this opportunity, but as Fusilier will tell you, he had to earn the right to claim it.
What we learned in interviews and conversations with those closest to him: the big city, even bigger dreams and the enormous shoes to fill as the next great wide receiver from LSU to hit the pro game are all part of his present.
Striving to satisfy the standard established by Odell Beckham Jr., Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson is a given.
Doing so under the pressure of being next - and with all teams, the Giants, considering the shadow Beckham cast in his time here - is not as daunting of a reality as one might expect, they insist.
His promise: he’s ready for the challenge. “I get a lot of comparisons,” Nabers said. “I’m just focusing on trying to be the best Malik Nabers I can possibly be.”
Nabers immediately becomes the one player on the Giants’ offense that puts defenses on their heels. His separation rate is through the roof, and he led the country in 10-yard-plus, 20-yard-plus and 30-yardplus plays this past season. Beckham is the last 1,000-yard receiver for the Giants and that was in 2018.
In a twist of fate, Nabers’ first NFL jersey was that of Beckham’s Giants’ No. 13, and he brings that same tantalizing element of playmaking ability.
Like Beckham was before him, Nabers is an absolute home run hitter and a threat to score from anywhere.
“His ability to win 1-on-1 and make catches over defenders downfield,” analyst Dane Brugler of The Athletic told The Record and NorthJersey.com, offering a scouting report back at the Scouting Combine in March. “And then, after the catch, he’s explosive.”
Nabers sold the Giants on all of that, mind you, but not without the quality team brass insists sets him apart.
“What separates all the guys that are 6foot, that are 200 pounds and run a 4.45, there’s a bunch of them out there,” Schoen said. “To me it always goes back to grit, toughness, tenacity. You can’t coach that. You can’t teach that. I think this kid best illustrates it.”
Fusilier met Nabers when he was 14. He was starting up a 7-on-7 team and Tonya Nabers had to just about empty her bank account in order to get her son to the tryouts. The commitment to and sacrifice for Nabers’ dream was evident from the outset.
And safe to say, Malik made the team, and his relationship with Fusilier grew from there. With Tonya working several jobs to make ends meet, Fusilier helped out by taking Malik to summer camps, doing what he could to make sure a talented player did not get lost in the crowd.
They would break down his route running, with Fusilier videotaping drills and picking Nabers’ game apart in slow motion, frame by frame. The eager student never flinched at his coach’s pleas to improve, and by the time Nabers reached his junior season in high school, he began to dominate the competition.
“His drive, his motivation, everything he has done to this point, is about helping his mom,” Fusilier said. “That appreciation and respect for the sacrifices she has made for Malik and their family runs deep. You can’t overstate how important that is to him and the person, not just the player, he is.”
Burning desire to compete
Tonya Nabers switched places of employment, so she wound up relocating her family to a new apartment, which brought about a transfer of high schools for Malik going into his senior year following a breakout season as a junior at Comeaux. There was one problem in the eyes of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association: because the defensive coordinator at Comeaux had taken a job at Southside months before he moved and decided to transfer. According to LHSAA rules, Nabers was ineligible to play because technically he followed a coach from his former school, and that is not allowed.
The decision was appealed, but as the process dragged out, even though he was not permitted to play, Nabers chose to remain a part of his new team.
His patience was tested, but his character as a teammate and the leader was revealed.
He spent that season as a practice player on both sides of the ball helping get teammates ready for the next opponent, playing whatever position the coaching staff would give them the best look.
As one might expect, Nabers was unguardable at his natural position of receiver. He also loved showing out on the other side of the coin by playing lockdown cornerback, doing what he could to prep his teammates for whatever challenge was coming on game day.
Imagine being an uber-talented Division I wide receiver and future NFL draft pick volunteering to play defensive end on the practice field, just so a high school teammate at offensive tackle could be ready for the speed of an upcoming opponent.
“You talk about his competitive spirit and how you feed that when you can’t play on game day - Malik did that in practice,” Josh Fontenot, his coach at Southside, told The Record and NorthJersey.com earlier this week. “We put him at defensive end and we couldn’t block him. Believe me, he took tremendous pride in that. We couldn’t keep him out of the backfield.”
The 6-foot, 200-pound Nabers had 58 catches for 1,223 yards and 21 touchdowns in what turned out to be his final high school season in 2019. He was invited to the Under Armour All-American Game, even without playing as a senior. There was not a game due to the pandemic, but players were still honored.
“I had to go size him up for a ring for the Under Armour game for a guy who played scout team for me,” Fontenot said with a laugh. “He didn’t need a season for everyone to know how good of a player he was.”
‘Like watching Picasso paint’
Nabers bided his time at LSU early on, fighting through adversity and growing pains before his emergence as one of the best players in the country. He finished his career with the Tigers as the program’s alltime leader in receiving yards (3,003) and receptions (189).
“I’m not going to compare him to anybody. I think he’s a fantastic player,” Daboll said. “He’s got a lot of good attributes. Starting with his personality and demeanor, his competitive stamina. He’s got some dawg to him. Excited to work with him, he’s his own person.”
With 89 catches, 1,569 yards, and 18 touchdowns on the season, Nabers answered every question between the lines.
The wait in the green room inside FOX Theater on Draft Night lasted six picks, the highest selection for a wide receiver in Giants history.
“Watching Nabers run routes is like watching Picasso paint,” former two-time All-Pro receiver Steve Smith Sr. said.
Which brings the story full circle back to that dinner on the eve of the draft, and the exchange Fusilier shared with Nabers was six years in the making. They embraced, and then the coach decided to dare his star pupil to prove him right one more time.
“Go get a gold jacket, that’s what I told him,” Fusilier said. “I know his goals, even though he doesn’t talk much about them help the team win, win Rookie of the Year, keep working hard and become the special player we all know he will be. We know who Malik is, and everyone is going to see what kind of dawg he really is.”
The next chapter in Malik Nabers’ story, one that’ll have him on the biggest stage yet with the Giants, is set to begin.
And the quest to make good on Fusilier’s gold jacket challenge starts now.