The Indianapolis Colts tried to trade all the way up from No. 15 overall on Thursday night to the Giants’ pick at No. 6, league sources told the Daily News on Friday.
It is believed Colts GM Chris Ballard was hunting an offensive weapon. And it’s understandable he aimed so high.
Because at the Giants’ pick, where GM Joe Schoen stayed put, he landed something this organization hasn’t had since Odell Beckham Jr. walked these East Rutherford halls:
A true, game-changing No. 1 wide receiver – LSU star Malik Nabers.
“When the ball’s in the quarterback’s hands, Malik’s gonna be open,” Nabers, 20, said calmly and confidently Friday afternoon at the Giants’ facility in East Rutherford, N.J.
Not that Nabers will be able to turn the Giants around by himself. There is still the question of who will be throwing him the ball, both this season and long-term.
But he has drawn scouting comparisons from reputable evaluators to NFL stars such as the Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill, Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase and Vikings’ Justin Jefferson. All three of those players have completely unlocked some of the league’s top offenses.
Schoen gambled by letting top offensive weapon Saquon Barkley walk in free agency to the Philadelphia Eagles. So selecting Nabers completes the core switchover of the GM’s positional value philosophy:
He’d prefer to invest a top 10 pick in a No. 1 receiver in the modern NFL than stick with a top 10 running back.
In a way, this is the Giants’ chance to get the Barkley No. 2 overall 2018 pick right: to build around an elite offensive weapon with the explosiveness and versatility at a position more useful to modern NFL offenses in today’s higher-scoring game.
In fact, this marks such a pivotal change in the Giants’ offensive identity that Thursday’s selection essentially makes Nabers the new face of this franchise for the long haul.
It’s not Barkley anymore.
It’s not edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, despite his No. 5 overall selection as Schoen’s first-ever draft pick in 2022.
It’s not quarterback Daniel Jones, whom Schoen tried but failed to replace with a trade up to No. 3 for Drake Maye.
Two sources said the Giants included their No. 6 pick, No. 47 pick in round two and their 2025 first-round pick in an offer the New England Patriots still did not accept.
It is Nabers, a player who one NFL receivers coach told the Daily News should have won the Fred Biletnikoff Award over Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., a great player with more name recognition due to his Hall of Fame father.
“If you watch the Harrison and Nabers tapes, and it’s nameless and faceless people, I’m picking Malik Nabers 10 out of 10 times,” the coach said. “Not eight or nine. Ten out of 10.
“There are some questions about his off-field,” the coach added, referring to a Feb. 2023 gun arrest and maturity questions. “But if you pull up the comps of him and Ja’Marr Chase, it’s damn near identical. The difference between those two is Chase is a better outside receiver and Nabers is a better inside receiver. They both did both in college. Nabers does both better.”
Schoen said he is “fired up about the kid” given Nabers’ “toughness, production and versatility.” Nabers’ production is impossible to ignore.
He is not only LSU’s all-time leader in receptions (189) and receiving yards (3,003). He led all of college football last season with 120.7 receiving yards per game, 34 plays of 20-plus yards and 17 plays of 300-plus yards.
He led the SEC in catches each of the last two seasons and was NFL.com’s highest-ranked player in this entire draft, based on a grading system compiled by the league’s Lance Zierlein.
That gives head coach Brian Daboll a major weapon in a prove-it year as the expected offensive play-caller after running the NFL’s 30th-ranked offense in 2023. It also creates pressure on Daboll to score points or else.
Regardless of whether the Giants win this season, however, Nabers theoretically should position the organization — even if it’s under a new quarterback and coach next year — to grow into a more respectable operation on offense.
As for the gun arrest in 2023, Nabers said Friday: “It’s a learning experience. It’s something that we all go through in life. But I’m glad that I’m here today talking past it.”
The State of Louisiana ultimately refused charges in the case on the condition that Nabers surrendered the firearm at the time.
He moved on, supercharged LSU’s offense in the SEC and suddenly on Friday morning, he was traveling to New Jersey taking a phone call from Beckham — one of many other LSU standouts, along with Chase, who called to give him advice.
“Those guys were just telling me to be the same person I’ve been the whole time, keep the main thing the main thing,” Nabers said. “You’re in the league, but don’t get too scared, you’re still playing football. You’re still that little kid playing football at the end of the day. And have fun with it. You’re playing in the NFL, the dream you always wanted to do.”
