There’s no shortage of great pass catchers who’ve donned the blue and white “NY.” With the New York Giants about to embark on the their 100th season, it feels customary to name drop the team’s most historic figures at the wide out position. Frank Gifford, Earnest Gray, Amani Toomer, Plaxico Burress, and Odell Beckham Jr all come to mind. Oddly enough, the latter has a connection with the guy Giant fans expect to join that list — No. 6 overall pick Malik Nabers.
Malik Nabers Breaks Down his Relationship with Odell Beckham Jr.
“It’s a pretty good relationship,” said Nabers when Kay Adams of Up & Adams asked whether or not Beckham Jr. has reached out to him yet. “He reached out a couple of times to make sure my head was on straight, time to go get it now that I’m here.”
But Nabers then revealed that the two had communicated once before — well, at least in one direction — during some of the rookie’s earliest days on the gridiron.
OBJ Slid in His DMs
“He actually sent me a text message,” Nabers said. “When I was like 12, 11 years-old I had sent him a text message. I was like, ‘My hands are too big to fit gloves,’ because they only put so many gloves in academy but I couldn’t fit them cause my hands was too big. So I reached out to him cause I heard he had big hands.”
Nabers went on to explain that his “text” was actually an Instagram DM and that Beckham Jr. left him on delivered. That was, until the night Nabers was drafted a few months ago.
“On the draft he did,” said Nabers. “He was like, ‘It looks like you don’t need those gloves anymore. You here now.’ So that was a surreal moment that I had with Odell.”
Performance So Far
Nabers didn’t have any catches for any yards in New York’s preseason opener vs the Detroit Lions this past Thursday. He has flashed game-breaking potential thus far in camp, however, prompting himself up as the team’s next great wideout — a position that’s been vacant ever since New York traded Beckham Jr. four and a half years ago. The Giants haven’t had a receiver tally 1,000 yards in a single regular season campaign since OBJ did in 2018.
But Nabers isn’t the only young Giants route runner to get Beckham Jr.’s approval. After New York selected Jalin Hyatt last year and the former Tennessee Volunteer made a few Beckham-like catches at camp, comparisons between the two became hard to miss on any Giants fan’s timeline. When speculation arose regarding what number Hyatt might wear, Beckham endorsed him to take his old digits.
“ROCK OUT ONE THREE,” Beckham Jr. wrote on X before tagging Hyatt.
While Hyatt last year didn’t have the sensational rookie season Beckham Jr. did, he did flash enough skills as a deep threat to spur continued excitement around him as a prospect. The now second-year man finished the season with 23 catches with for 373 yards but failed to find the endzone.
Giants fans will surely hope for more out of him this coming season as well while they look for Nabers to live up to his own “OBJ expectations.”
Main Photo Credit: NFL: New York Giants Training Camp USA Today
