Life has been very different for rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers since he went to the New York Giants with the sixth pick in the 2024 NFL draft.
At LSU, Nabers experienced a culture of winning. In his final two collegiate seasons, the Tigers compiled a 20-7 record and won two bowl games while spending 19 straight games in the rankings.
Now, 13 weeks into his NFL career, Nabers knew nothing but losing. The Giants are 2-10, eliminated from postseason contention, and face an offseason filled with uncertainty and possible change.
Nabers had difficulty adapting at times making public comments that provoke a backlash. As a result, he had to sit down with general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll and also struggled on the field.
“It’s a culture shock,” Darius Slayton said of Nabers on Monday. “I understand it definitely comes from the SEC. For him, you come from a big conference, a big program like LSU, and you're used to winning, you're used to going there every Saturday, and he went up and down the field and fought his way through there . Things definitely didn’t go that way for our team this year.
“Of course we didn’t win much, but it was pretty similar for me in my first year. I came from a very competitive program and we won four games my rookie year. Hopefully we win more this year. But it's only part of it. It’s something he’ll learn to navigate over time.”
Nabers will never like dealing with losses. He made that clear during a pre-draft interview with Daboll that aired on the HBO series “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants.”
“The most important thing is that whenever the season ends, you have this as your first year so that you will be motivated to advance your career in the following years and not want it to stay the way it was but “To try to do your best.” “Change it in the future,” Slayton added.
For Nabers, this would mean reducing his drop rate.
While the newcomer does not accept defeat, he does accept contributing to losses. He recently revealed this He doesn't care if he drops passessuggesting it's simply part of his game.
Slayton feels that Nabers simply didn't articulate well enough what he wanted to say, giving him some advice from veterans along the way.
“I think it comes from the right place. I think to some extent it's a kind of mentality that you have to have. If you drop one drop, you can't sit there and let one drop turn into five because you're so afraid of dropping one,” he said. “You have to get back up there and attack the ball with the same aggressiveness the second time around. So I think it comes from the right place.
“At the same time, our job is to catch the ball when it comes to us. So he obviously knows he has to make some of these plays. But at the end of the day, Malik has good hands. He's obviously a first-round receiver and a top receiver in college because he can catch the ball. So I think he has a lot of confidence. Apparently that's what you radiate when you make a statement like that. I think it comes from the right place. But at the same time you have to do your best not to drop the ball and of course I know that.”
Nabers will learn with time and maturity. But for now, Slayton's advice will have to suffice: you can't mourn losses and at the same time agree to contribute to them.
