New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers is setting records as a rookie. His 75 receptions are the most by an NFL player in his first 10 games of a career.
But Nabers is also making news off the field, as well. His comments after the past two games about his usage and his attitude toward making mistakes and dropping passes have lifted a few eyebrows.
On Wednesday, Nabers met with the media again in an attempt to clarify his comments.
“Like I said, it’s football. It’s going to come with that. Everyone’s going to drop the ball. I’m not saying everybody, because some people thrive on not dropping the ball. But it’s the sport, it’s a thing,” Naber said.
“But like I said, I just can’t think about going into the game dropping the ball, after I drop the ball, keep it in my head like, ‘I just dropped the ball.’ I’ve just got to move forward. So that’s what I was saying. It’s not like I’m saying, ‘Even though I’m dropping the ball, keep throwing me the ball.’ Not selfish, what I’m saying is it’s not something that I’m thinking about in my head after I drop the ball.”
Nabers continues, explaining why he demands the ball even after several drops.
“It’s next play mentality. I could drop five footballs. And then after that, they come at me for the game-winner. And then I catch the game-winner. Then everybody’s happy and stuff like that,” he said. “But like I said, keep trusting me. Some plays are not going to be made. I’m aware of that. But some plays are going to be made.”
Nabers’ on-field success is marred by the team’s incessant losing. The Giants are 2-10 and have lost their last seven games. Nabers has repeatedly stated he hates nothing more than losing. He was asked how he is addressing the losing after a winning college career at LSU.
“Just focus on more things you can control, my emotions, how I carry myself, character,” he said. “Even though these things have been going down, how you can look at you in the mirror and just try to find a way for you to help the team out, help the team figure out how to win. Just like I said, focus on your character. You can’t really do anything about it now. The record is the record. But you can still focus on moving forward.”
Nabers is crushing it statistics-wise but he feels he could be more impactful. The Giants hope that is the case, too.
“There’s always more for me. I think I could be doing some amazing things right now,” he said. “Is it going the way I thought it was going? No, not really. But I’m still continuing to work on trying to get that out. Like I said, I feel like I could be doing way more.”
Seems like someone on the Giants finally took Nabers aside and coached him up on how to interact with members of the media.
