Malik Nabers had a blast at the Pro Bowl Games this past weekend. It was obvious, right there on his face.
Nabers was smiling, laughing, making circus catches over some of the NFL’s best defenders, scoring flag football touchdowns and flipping into a foam pit to celebrate.
He even played corner in the red zone, broke up a pass and joked that he was locking down wide receivers now, too.
He was having fun.
Not that the Pro Bowl counts for anything, other than some early offseason entertainment.
But it was noteworthy and refreshing to see Nabers playing with such joy outside of the despair of the Giants’ 3-14 season and miserable 2024 existence.
And it was a glimpse of what hopefully will come in East Rutherford, N.J., in 2025 in beyond.
If the Giants can give Nabers a quarterback, improve the roster and provide constructive structure for this impressive young talent, he clearly has the shine to help New York thrive once again in the prime time spotlight.
To be the name in lights on the marquis when the Giants return to relevance.
That’s a lot of ifs, though. And who knows if Joe Schoen will be able to improve this team quickly enough before Nabers’ patience runs out.
Nabers, remember, set a franchise record with 109 catches this season, eclipsing Steve Smith’s 107 from 2009. Nabers finished with 1,204 receiving yards and seven touchdowns, ranking fifth in the league in receptions and seventh in receiving yards.
At age 21.
And yet he didn’t have many reasons to smile. His production was mostly in spite of the Giants’ reality and did not change the organization’s bottom line.
Nabers also showed he still has some growing to do as a young NFL player. He called the Giants’ team soft, complained about Brian Daboll’s play calling and said he was tired of losing.
On the field, he had a costly fourth-down drop in the Giants’ Week 2 loss at Washington.
And he committed numerous pre-snap penalties for not being set before the snap, something that Daboll and wide receivers coach Mike Groh should have put a stop to sooner — regardless of whether NFL officials are emphasizing it more or not.
Nabers’ seven-catch, 171-yard, two-touchdown outburst against the Colts in Week 17, however, was a supersonic boom of a day from a rookie whose talent is too much to contain at times.
Nabers missed the Giants’ win in Seattle with a concussion, where Darius Slayton went off for eight catches, 121 yards and a touchdown. But in the Giants’ other two wins, Nabers had four TD catches combined and led the offense — including his eight catches for 78 yards and two TDs in an early season road win at Cleveland.
It was not uncommon for sources around the league to interject during a conversation about the Giants’ many problems: “Nabers is really, really good, though.”
That’s an encouraging reality if Schoen and the Giants can buttress Nabers with building blocks and the ultimate complement: a franchise quarterback who can form a quick rapport with the young wideout.
Nabers has the potential to be a great draft pick at No. 6 overall last year if the Giants can create and implement a plan that restores the roster, elevates him further and turns his production into wins.
Passing on quarterbacks Bo Nix (Broncos) and Michael Penix Jr. (Falcons) in the 2024 NFL Draft, though, left New York twisting the wind when they decided to pack it in for good on Daniel Jones.
Schoen literally bottomed out the team and the roster. And in yet another tribute to LSU’s wide receiver history, the Giants’ GM didn’t even select the most productive Tigers rookie of 2024.
That was Brian Thomas Jr., the Jacksonville Jaguars receiver who caught 87 passes for 1,282 yards and 10 TDs.
Still, Nabers’ ability to qualify for the Pro Bowl Games as a second alternate was good fortune when Detroit Lions No. 1 Amon-Ra St. Brown stepped out due to injury.
It’s not just that it puts a Pro Bowl on Nabers’ resume.
It’s that everyone got to see the star come out of the Giants’ most exciting player when he was playing a kid’s version of the game, catching passes from Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield.
Everyone got to see the million dollar smile that just might be the face of the Giants’ resurgence if the wins ever start coming.
Because the joy is still there somewhere. Nabers showed everyone that in Orlando, Fla.