{"id":178363,"date":"2025-07-03T13:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/178363\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T13:59:11","slug":"malik-nabers-recalls-brutal-welcome-to-nfl-moment-to-dale-earnhardt-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/178363\/","title":{"rendered":"Malik Nabers recalls brutal &#8216;Welcome to NFL&#8217; moment to Dale Earnhardt Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every rookie has a \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment, including <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/new-york-giants\/giants-news-brian-daboll-drops-malik-nabers-injury-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers<\/a>, who revealed his to <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nascar\/nascar-news-dale-earnhardt-jr-tom-cruise-days-of-thunder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Earnhardt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p1xgxoTHpx0&amp;list=PLoqDIJHlyN3MO9npPW9qneUax5FO9trP1&amp;index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">during an episode<\/a> of Taking Laps with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Nabers revealed his \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment occurred in <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/new-york-giants\/giants-malik-nabers-takes-blame-for-brutal-drop-in-loss-vs-commanders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Week 2 against the Washington Commanders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was like 3rd and 5, I ran the shallow, I caught the ball, and I was going up the field on the right sideline,\u201d he recalled, \u201cOne of the linebackers came and hit me. I [saw] him in my peripheral, but I thought he was farther [away]\u2026 When I cut upfield, he just magically appears right there, and he smacked me, I ain&#8217;t gonna lie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looked harder than it seemed. He hit me, but I popped right up, and I was like, Okay, alright. Now I&#8217;m in the league. I know for sure in the league, they&#8217;re gonna try to hit you \u2014 they&#8217;re trying to knock you out,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, Nabers was okay despite the hit. Some fans on social media tracked down what they believed to be the hit (which can be seen above). It happened on a 3rd and 11 on a pass from <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nfl\/new-york-giants\/giants-news-malik-nabers-daniel-jones-benching-tommy-devito\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">former Big Blue signal-caller Daniel Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Has Giants&#8217; Malik Nabers recovered from his \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3412153\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Malik-Nabers-of-the-New-York-Giants.jpg\" alt=\"New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) celebrates his 45-yard touchdown catch against the Philadelphia Eagles during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\"  \/>Eric Hartline-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Nabers may have had a \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment early in his career, but he recovered quickly. During the game against the Commanders, where his \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment occurred, Nabers was targeted a career-high 18 times by Jones. He caught 10 passes for 127 yards in the game. Nabers also caught his first touchdown of the year in that game.<\/p>\n<p>He caught 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns in his rookie season. His stellar season earned him his first Pro Bowl nod as well.<\/p>\n<p>Nabers was the Giants&#8217; first round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. He was selected sixth overall in the draft, and he played college football at LSU. Nabers broke out in 2023, catching 89 passes for 1,569 yards and 14 touchdowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every rookie has a \u201cWelcome to the NFL\u201d moment, including New York Giants receiver Malik Nabers, who revealed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[4865,7,519,4126,1917,56,2321,2469,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-178363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-celebrity","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-malik-nabers","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-giants","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkgiants","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114789663702280860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}