NY Giants training camp 2025 practice highlights from the sidelines
See and hear New York Giants players in highlights during training camp practices from the sideline in East Rutherford.
EAST RUTHERFORD – The lasting image of Malik Nabers from his first-ever game inside Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., is of the New York Giants wide receiver flat on his stomach and face down into the grass at the 11-yard line.
The fourth down throw had slipped through his hands, giving Washington possession for a drive that led to the game-winning score in Week 2 last season, and all Nabers could do was pound the ground with his fist in frustration because of the opportunity lost.
In just his second career game, Nabers caught 10 passes for 127 yards and scored his first career touchdown. But with the drop on his 18th target, the Giants turned the ball over on downs.
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A visibly upset Nabers had to watch Jayden Daniels, his college quarterback and close friend, celebrate the victory with the Commanders – and in his mind – at his expense.
“Leek felt like it was the end of the world, that he lost us the game by dropping that pass,” Giants running back Tyrone Tracy told NorthJersey.com and The Record last season. “I was just like, ‘We need you. We’re in this together.’”
Through the highs and the lows, and there were plenty of both, the three-win campaign endured by the Giants became transformative for Nabers. The breaking point was a post-game interview in the losing locker room on Nov. 24, 2024 when the Giants were blown out at home by the Buccaneers.
Nabers met with reporters and spent the entire session chomping down on a piece of gum, giving off the vibes of a player who wanted no business being where he was in that moment. The losing was getting to him; having to answer for the losing was even harder for a rookie whose talent was being overshadowed by the lack of execution everywhere else.
What happened in the aftermath should not be lost in Nabers’ performance over the final six weeks during which he wound up setting a franchise record for receptions in a season (109), not to mention breaking the NFL mark for most catches by a rookie wide receiver with 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games.
Nabers stepped out of the shadow cast by the franchise’s malaise and the frustration of a locker room, learning how to lead and setting the stage for greater things to come.
At 22, Nabers has not shied away from the glare nor seemed at all uncomfortable with it since.
It’s being accountable and doing his job, part of the reality he was convinced to accept early in his NFL career, both by circumstance and internal strategy.
The Giants convinced Nabers that, with the respect he had already garnered and the level of expectation he has for his own game, his role comes with a responsibility to be there for the team, in good times and the bad they experienced for much of his rookie season.
There was no reason to give anyone an opening to question his motivation, especially if he was willing to own it the way teammates witnessed behind the scenes.
“My teammates, they want me to voice my opinions,” Nabers said last week. “They feel like I’m a key factor in this football team so for me … just speaking out trying to get the team going or if I see anything, that just goes to show how much my teammates believe in me and they want me to do those types of things. I don’t speak a lot, but when it’s necessary to speak, I will speak. When things are not going well, I will speak my opinions and try to get everybody on the same page.”
Stepping up and into a comfort zone
Giants coach Brian Daboll revealed Wednesday it was not uncommon this summer to see Nabers along with Darius Slayton and Wan’Dale Robinson in the quarterbacks’ meeting room watching film with Russell Wilson, Jaxson Dart and Jameis Winston.
From Daboll’s perspective, this is yet another way Nabers has gone about taking his game to another level.
Asked what he likes of what he has seen from Nabers, Daboll quipped: “I like a lot. He’s talented. He’s in his second year in the system. I think him and Russ have really bonded not just on the field, but off the field. And he’s seen how a professional has done it for that many years in the league. The guys communicate well. They work every practice. They work in the meeting rooms. He’s really done a nice job. Again, he’s a good football player, first and foremost. He’s extremely talented. But I’d say off the field, meeting rooms, all the things that you take a step in from one year to the next, he’s done that, and he’s done it well.”
Nabers challenged Dart’s competitive fire earlier this summer and liked how the rookie QB responded.
This was on the basketball court at Wilson’s San Diego home in July, in between throwing sessions for Giants teammates gathered for a final tune-up with training camp looming.
Nabers and Dart, their future franchise quarterback, were going at it something fierce, guarding one another in a pick-up hoops game between a pair of first-round picks unwilling to back down.
So when Nabers stepped to Dart in a heated moment between plays, wanting to see how his rookie teammate would respond, he was testing the mettle of someone who, if he reaches his potential, will play a big role in his football life.
Dart stepped right back at him, and it was then both players realized they were more alike than anticipated.
Fire. Attitude. Moxie. Swagger.
That was Nabers last season in his record-setting rookie campaign, and there’s no doubt that is who Dart is, with the former Ole Miss star putting that on display since he got here.
The lockers for Wilson and Nabers are next to each other at the team’s facility, and they have spent a lot of time together on and off the field.
“If I can take anything, any lessons from him,” Nabers said of Wilson, “just look at all the things he’s accomplished and doing those right things, I think it’s growing on me.”
Given how much Nabers has grown following a challenging first year, the Giants are eager to see the leap he is poised to make starting on Sunday afternoon.