Not much went right for the New York Giants in 2024. It was an awful season, with the team finishing with a 3-14 record. One of the few positives from the season was the emergence of Malik Nabers. After being drafted by New York with the sixth-overall pick, Nabers quickly established himself as a really good receiver in the NFL.
He finished his rookie season with 109 receptions for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns. Nabers was selected to the Pro Bowl, and immediately considered a No. 1 receiver the Giants could build around on offense. Going into his second season, that’s exactly what New York is doing, giving the young wideout some quarterbacks to build with.
While Nabers’ numbers impressed the masses, some have spent the offseason trying to poke holes in them. ESPN’s Ben Solak recently released a piece asking big questions for talented second-year receivers. While Solak questioned if Ladd McConkey was a WR1 and if Brian Thomas Jr. is the next great receiver, Nabers’ question was what does a normal season look like for him.
Solak essentially described Nabers’ rookie season as abnormal because of his large share of targets. The NFL analyst praised the wideouts abilities, but downplayed his production by saying he was fed a ton of targets on a bad team. He went on to argue tha Nabers isn’t built to be targeted as much as he was in year one.
Ben Solak (ESPN)"Nabers saw 30.8% of the Giants' team targets last season. That's ... well, quite a lot. In the past 10 seasons, only 14 receivers saw more than 30% of their team's total target share, and none of them were rookies. In fact, Nabers leads all rookie receivers since 2000 in team target share.
Here's another one. Nabers was targeted on 39.9% of the Giants' pass attempts against man coverage -- four out of every 10. I don't have coverage target data for too many seasons, but since 2016, that target rate against man coverage is exceeded by only 2020 Davante Adams and 2022 Tyreek Hill -- two of the best receiver seasons we've seen in the past decade."
ESPN’s questions the amount of targets Malik Nabers received as a rookie
According to Solak, Nabers was highly productive but just fairly efficient, and the analyst chalked the historic rookie season up to being a “case of a uniquely bad team funneling every throw they could to their one uniquely good player.” He also went on to say that Nabers should be used out of the slot more, and that could improve his efficiency, but doubts it’ll actually happen.
"I don't think Nabers should be carrying more than 30% of the team's targets; he isn't built for that much contact. I'd like to see his volume decrease so that his effectiveness -- bigger plays, fresher legs, more YAC -- can increase. Of course, the Giants' receiving corps is much the same as it was last season, but a guy can dream."
Ben Solak (ESPN)
It probably wasn’t Solak’s intent, but this reads as if Nabers’ rookie numbers are being downplayed. Considering how Solak praised the receiver’s film, this could have been his way of saying how he thinks New York can get the most out of the talented receiver, but it can also be read as Solak arguing that Nabers’ numbers only looked as good as they did because he received a ridiculous amount of targets.
Whatever the case, there’s no denying how talented a receiver Malik Nabers is, and he absolutely should have the ball thrown his way a lot. A case definitely can be made that he should play from the inside and the outside, but not that he should get less targets. Nabers, almost single-handedly, kept New York in a lot of games, and won a few, so the Giants need to keep throwing him the ball.
