Malik Nabers is carrying Giants with his record rookie pace, and bigger spotlight awaits

By the third game of his NFL career, Malik Nabers had become such a presence in the New York Giants offense that he did more than catch the football against the Cleveland Browns.

The rookie wide receiver recorded his first two rushing attempts and took a direct snap near the goal for his first-ever pass as a pro (Nabers wisely threw the ball away out of bounds).

The message was clear: Nabers is already the centerpiece of the Giants' offense. Beyond the potentially historic number of targets he will see in the traditional passing game, head coach Brian Daboll – who is also the team's offensive playcaller – will put the ball in the 21-year-old’s hands every chance he has, continuing against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday.

“I think we target him a fair amount, but I think he's earned that,” Daboll said Monday. “He's earned the right to have those opportunities.”

After his quarterback moment, Nabers went back to making plays as a receiver. He ran a corner route to the back-left pylon, and Giants quarterback Daniel Jones sailed the ball his way. Nabers rose up like he had a trampoline underneath him and spun counterclockwise at the same time before catching the ball. The former LSU Tiger demonstrated sufficient body control to touch his right foot in bounds before his arm landed outside the field of play.

“I didn't want to try to fall backwards … so I caught it and just kept my body moving and turned my waist,” Nabers said after the game, a 21-15 victory over the Browns for the Giants’ first win of the season. “Then my feet just followed my waist. After I turned around, I saw where I was and I knew I had some extra room, so I just tried to get two feet down.”

Don’t sleep on his throwing abilities, though.

“Check out that film at LSU,” Nabers said. “I can definitely throw it.”

But the Giants, widely viewed as a team that might have selected Jones’ eventual replacement at the top of the 2024 draft were it positioned to do so, took Nabers sixth overall for plays like that touchdown catch and one earlier the same drive when he somehow hovered in the air long enough to wrestle a deep ball away from Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. for a 28-yard completion.

“They were good catches, but I’ve made some way better catches than that,” Nabers said. “I’m not surprised by it, it's just how I play, it's how I am.”

Nabers scored his second touchdown against the Browns in the closing seconds before halftime and became the youngest (21 years and 56 days) wide receiver in NFL history with two touchdown receptions in a game, eclipsing Mike Evans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (21 years and 73 days old on Nov. 2, 2014).

What impressed Daboll the most on Sunday wasn’t even a catch. Jones’ arm was hit on a pass intended for tight end Theo Johnson and the ball popped in the air. Daboll feared it could be returned the other way for a Cleveland touchdown. Nabers raced to the ball in time to knock it down and avert crisis.

“That play says more to me about Malik than some of the other things,” Daboll said. “Everyone can see the touchdowns, but the unselfish play, the smart play he made was a huge play in the game.”

Nabers' production has been prolific. He is the first player in NFL history with more than 20 catches (23) and three touchdowns in his first three career games (271 receiving yards). The Louisiana native has the most catches of more than 20 yards this season (6), a mark he’s achieved that with both route-running capabilities and his skill in picking up yards after the catch.

His 37 total targets – 30 in the last two games, including 18 during a Week 2 loss to the Washington Commanders – easily leads the Giants in that category. He ranks second in the NFL in target share (37.8%). Nabers has accounted for 56% of the Giants’ air yards, per Next Gen Stats, and is the lone player able to claim half of his team’s air yards this season.

“You have to see how the game declares itself,” assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said last week. “But I think you always want to put your best player, your best scheme, or your best players in those spots so that they can be successful.”

Nabers is on track to beat out former Indianapolis Colts wideout Marvin Harrison’s all-time target high from 2002, when Peyton Manning threw his way a record 205 times – and that was during a 16-game season.

Thus far, Jones has had reason to throw Nabers’ way – the receiver has 12 catches and 175 receiving yards against man-to-man coverage, according to Next Gen Stats . When facing press coverage, per TruMedia , Nabers leads the league in target per route run rate (40%), first-down per route run rate (23%) and yards per route run (4.47).

“I think in matchup situations where he's one-on-one with a guy, he's won and made explosive plays for us time and time again,” Jones said last week. “He's done a good job and been a big help to us so far.”

The early lowlight of Nabers’ career was a ball that hit off his hands on fourth down late with the game tied in the Giants’ eventual loss to Washington.

For someone who expects to make every play, Jones said, Nabers took the drop hard. The quarterback also noted that had it not been for the rookie, the Giants would not have been in a position to win the game.

“He's a competitor and holds himself to a high standard,” Jones said. “I think you realize that pretty quickly spending any time with him.”

Nabers flushed that mishap – which came in a 10-catch performance that featured his first career touchdown – to shine against Cleveland. Facing Dallas on short rest in his prime-time debut arrives with added drama.

In May during the NFLPA Rookie Premiere event, Nabers said the Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs was the cornerback he was most excited to face. Diggs took offense as the feud devolved into the two trading backhanded social media barbs.

Nabers did not want to discuss any of that Tuesday.

“I'm having a lot of fun,” he said, “a dream come true.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Malik Nabers is carrying Giants with his record rookie pace, and bigger spotlight awaits