Mere days after complaining about his lack of targets, New York Giants rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers was targeted 13 times in a 27-20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Nabers hauled in eight of those targets for 69 yards but failed to find the endzone. He also dropped two more passes, moving him into a second-place tie for the most drops in the NFL this season. Only Amari Cooper has more.
But don’t bring that to Nabers’ attention because he doesn’t care.
“I don’t care about drops,” Nabers said, via Sports Illustrated. “I mean, it’s just part of football. I don’t care if I drop the ball six times. Keep throwing me the ball.”
Nabers may not care but the Giants should. If he’s their No. 1 wideout and is relied upon to make big catches in big moments, the number of drops must be trimmed down. He has an 8.5 percent drop rate this year, leads all rookie wide receivers in drops, and has more drops than any receiver with 100-plus targets.
That’s not acceptable.
And Nabers isn’t just dropping highly-contested catches, he’s dropping balls in the open field and key moments. His fourth-quarter drop in Week 2 against the Washington Commanders very much cost New York the game.
There should be no issue with Nabers demanding more targets given his importance to the team’s offense, but it becomes increasingly difficult to rely on the unreliable.
It’s an area of Nabers’ game that he must clean up as he gains more experience. Accepting failure, especially at an 8.5 percent clip, is not something the league’s most successful and dominant receivers would do. He should hold himself to that standard.
