Giants’ young wide receivers look worth getting excited about

If you need a reason to feel optimistic about the future of the New York Giants, the young, play-making group of wide receivers GM Joe Schoen has collected should give you one.

2024 first-round pick Malik Nabers, 2023 third-round pick Jalin Hyatt and 2022 second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson, are providing much of the buzz early in Giants training camp. Along with Darius Slayton, a sixth-year player who is the old man of the Big 4 at receiver at the ancient age of 27, that group provides the core of what the Giants hope to be a more explosive, wide-open offense than fans are used to seeing.

“I like the receiver room we have,” head coach Brian Daboll said on Friday. “[Jalin] Hyatt’s been good. [Darius] Slayton has had a good camp these first two days. Wan’Dale [Robinson’, (wide receiver) Leek [Malik Nabers], and even the guys in the back. There’s good competition and look forward to seeing how it unfolds.”

Nabers, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, is being counted on to be the team’s best wide receiver since Odell Beckham Jr. He has been a highlight reel so far in training camp.

Coach Brian Daboll loves not only the talent but the mentality Nabers brings to his job.

“I’ve seen it every day I’ve been around him. His mentality is the mentality you need to have. He’s humble, but he works extremely hard,” Daboll said. “We’ve moved him in a lot of places. I’d say for a young receiver, a lot of times you put [them] at one spot. So, it’s a credit to him and the amount of work that he puts in. He knows he’s got a long way to go. It’s just a couple practices, but obviously we thought he was a good player where we selected him.

“I told you I love the person. I love his competitive desire, his will, his grit, if you will. But he knows he’s two days in. He’s had an OTAs. He’s not where he wants to be. No one is, not anyone on our roster, not any coach, but he’s got the right mindset.”

Nabers has been so impressive that Daboll and quarterback Daniel Jones are already asking him what play he wants to run and how he wants to run it. That is how the deep shot he caught from Jones over Deonte Banks (shown above) came about.

“It’s a great feeling. Dabs asked me what play I wanted to call, and I said, well, let’s throw a go ball,” Nabers said. “And Daniel came up to me, like, what do you want, you want to check out of the press? I said, nah. I said, off press, just throw it up. He was like I got you. The chemistry showed.

“It shows how much trust he has to give me the ball in open space or just let me run any route I want. So, to have that, as a head coach that’s got trust in you when you come into the third day of training camp, they try to understand how good of a player I am. For him to just ask me what kind of play I want and for him to call it, it shows how much trust he has in me.”

As exciting as he is, Daboll and the Giants know that Nabers can and will show his frustration when the ball isn’t coming his way or when things are not going well.

“I just think that’s who he is. He’s competitive. He wants to do well, and he’s willing to do anything he can do to be as good as he can be,” Daboll said. “He knows he hasn’t played in the league. There’s going to be some rough spots, whenever those come up, and we’re here for him. He’s here for us. We communicate. We work well together, but I don’t want to let him lose who he is. Be who you are.”

Hyatt was disappointed by catching only 23 passes and not scoring any touchdowns as a rookie.

“It affected me a lot, actually,” Hyatt said to a small gaggle of reporters on Friday. “Didn’t score a touchdown. Didn’t have the year that I wanted.

“It’s a lot of things that happened that we couldn’t control, and I think, man, it just made me hungrier for this year. Made me focus. All the outside noise and all of that was gone. Now it’s one goal, and that’s to win. We want to win, and we will win.”

Hyatt and Jones connected on a beautiful back-shoulder throw on Friday. Hyatt admitted that “we couldn’t do that a year ago.”

Hyatt spent most of the spring and summer of his rookie season working with backup quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito. This year, things are different.

Hyatt is always in the group working with Jones. He also spent much of his offseason in New Jersey with Jones, giving him someone to throw to as the quarterback worked his way back from his ACL surgery.

“I was with DJ the whole offseason, just practicing, practicing different routes,” HHyatt said. “You know, when somebody’s on me, how do you want to throw this goal ball? How do you want to throw this fade? And you know, it starts there. It starts in the offseason, and come out here, we just show it.”

Daboll praised the work Hyatt has done, and that wide receivers coach Mike Groh has done with Hyatt.

“Mike has done a fantastic job here these last two years. He meets all the time with Hyatt. And Hyatt has really improved since he’s been here,” Daboll said. “It’s a different system than he came from, which it is for most people. But he has put a lot of time, effort, and energy into improving his craft. And it shows up. He might not get the ball in certain things, but his routes, his understanding, his play speed. You can be fast, but sometimes not play fast when there’s a lot of things going on and he has really improved in that area.”

Hyatt also shouted out Groh.

“Credit to Coach Groh and what he has done for me,” Hyatt said. “He has so many side meetings, just me and him, that he didn’t have to do, and he did. I’ve taken out of his day to do it, and he taught me a lot of things. He’s been in the league for a minute, so he knows. He’s seen all the receivers. He knows how I play, and with him, he helps me with releases, helps me with a lot of things that I need to work on from Tennessee to the league. I’m very proud of him being our receiver coach.”

Allen Robinson, trying to make the roster in his 11th year as an NFL wide receiver, has been impressed by the work ethic of his young teammates.

“I think that’s what makes this room special is that there are younger guys. But you have guys who are eager to get better. Who ask questions, who are very detailed in the film room, who have the willingness and want to get better,” Robinson said. “I think that whenever you have that, along with the talent that those guys have I think that you are at a significant advantage because it’s not always like that when you have young receivers.”

Wide receivers have egos. They want the ball. They want the catches, the yards, the glory. There is, though, only one football. Hyatt, in just his second season, understands how much the presence and play-making of Nabers can help everyone.

“This is not a selfish game. It’s a team game, really it is. Adding Malik helps me, helps Wan’Dale, helps Slay,” Hyatt said. “I mean, he’s a great athlete, great player, and I’m actually glad that we added him. We can do a lot more things on offense.

“We can be more versatile how you know, we can put guys in other spots. And we can change what the defense sees with their eyes with Malik. So, I’m proud that he’s on our team.”

Robinson, the third-year slot receiver, will be a big part of what the Giants do on offense.

Robinson, who has yet to play a fully healthy season, always seems to be involved when the Giants are moving and shifting. He has caught passes out of the slot, run reverses and jet sweeps, caught passes while lined up as a running back, and even carried the ball on a toss play. The Giants are finding creative ways to get him into space.

The Giants have tried for years to build a wide receiver group that could make their quarterback and their offense better. They might have finally done it.