Malik Nabers can’t explain it.
Once again Sunday, the Giants failed to get their rookie wide receiver involved early.
Nabers did not receive a target until the third quarter of Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — a game in which he described the Giants’ performance as being “soft as f–k.”
“Go out there first, second quarter, don’t get the ball, start getting targets at the end,” a frustrated Nabers said in the locker room. “I mean, I can’t do nothing. Start getting the ball when it’s 30-0. What do you want me to do?”
Nabers finished with six receptions for 64 yards on nine targets in his first game playing with Tommy DeVito at quarterback.
Asked why the Giants did not look his way in the first half, Nabers replied, “I don’t know.”
“Talk to Dabs about that,” Nabers said, referring to head coach Brian Daboll. “Talk to Dabs.”
Daboll attributed Nabers’ lack of involvement to the Giants not running many plays.
“Certainly, had some there dialed up and they had, whether it’s a coverage designed to, I’m not saying double him or anything like that, just a better coverage for the play in and of itself,” Daboll said. “But [we] didn’t have very many plays.”
It was the fifth game in a row in which Nabers did not record more than one catch or receive more than two targets in the first quarter.
Two games ago, he was held without a catch on one target in the first half of a 27-22 loss to the Washington Commanders.
His recent usage is in extreme contrast to the first four games of the season, when Nabers totaled 52 targets. Nabers caught 35 passes in those games — the second most receptions through a player’s first four games in NFL history, behind only the 39 recorded by the Rams’ Puka Nacua last year.
Nabers, 21, missed Weeks 5 and 6 with a concussion.
In the five games since he returned, Nabers has not eclipsed 71 receiving yards, though he’s ended up with at least eight targets in all them.
The Giants drafted Nabers with the No. 6 overall pick out of LSU in April, identifying him as a play-making building block on an offense that had lacked a No. 1 wide receiver since trading Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns in March 2019.
Nabers has 67 receptions for 671 yards and three touchdowns in nine games this year. The first eight games came with Daniel Jones at quarterback. The Giants benched Jones last week, then agreed to release him before they fell to 2-9 with Sunday’s loss.
After Sunday’s defeat, Nabers said he is “tired of losing.”
“I mean, obviously it ain’t the quarterback,” Nabers said of the Giants’ issues. “Same outcome when we had DJ at quarterback. I mean, take a look. Take a look. It ain’t the quarterback.”
