The only way for the Lions to stop Malik Nabers over the past two days was to draw him into a fight.
Nabers’ first taste of an NFL opponent only amped up the hype around the Giants electric rookie receiver.
He made an acrobatic touchdown catch Tuesday to highlight a two-day stretch of joint practices during which he caught 17 of 18 passes thrown in his direction during 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.
“It’s just an evaluation of what I can do, what I can’t do,” Nabers said. “As I go out here I show them that there’s not a lot that I can’t do.”
But a superior performance took an ugly turn after Nabers and Lions first-round draft pick Terrion Arnold — former SEC rivals at LSU and Alabama — battled for an end-zone pass that fell incomplete.
Nabers tapped Arnold on the helmet as a sign of respect, but Lions safety Kerby Joseph quickly approached Nabers.
They bumped into each other, Nabers slapped Joseph in the facemask, and Joseph charged at Nabers and threw the first punch, which Nabers returned to escalate what became the first of several big fights between the teams in the final 30 minutes of practice.
“It’s hot and we’re competing,” Nabers said. “Stuff like that is going to happen.”
Nabers declined to share what Joseph had said to spark the first shove.
“The competitor in me and Arnold, we talk almost every day about competing and how great we want to be,” Nabers said. “It’s nothing against him. He’s my brother, so I’m going to give him the work he needs, he’s going to give me the work I need. I was tapping him on the helmet like, ‘Good play.’ That’s all it was. And then somebody [Joseph] comes running up to me and says a few words, and the rest is that.”
Giants head coach Brian Daboll immediately pulled Nabers to the sideline, and he never returned to the field because practice was cut short after a special-teams drill led to another fight.
Daboll issued a pre-practice edict to his team not to come off the sideline during any fights, after both teams did so during Monday’s many fights.
MALIK NABERS THROWING HANDS pic.twitter.com/osMNyEtKS4
— Talkin’ Giants (@TalkinGiants) August 6, 2024
“I’m just out here trying to compete at the highest point, make plays when I get the opportunity,” Nabers said. “I can compete with these guys in the league. That was just the main thing [to prove].”
Throwing punches into helmets in practice is a recipe for injury and disaster.
In games, the stakes are raised even higher because of the risk for penalty yardage and ejections.
“In a game situation, I’m highly alert of everything,” Nabers said. “It’s a heated practice.”
It was one thing for Nabers to dominate the first two weeks of training camp against the Giants’ young and shaky secondary.
It was another, however, to see how much trouble Nabers caused for Arnold — who he regards as the toughest matchup from his college career — and the rest of the Super Bowl hopeful Lions secondary.
Welcome to the NFL, rookies. Nabers learned in joint practices that “the game is fast” and “the level of competition is very high.”
“There’s a lot of work to be done — a lot of mistakes that I’ve made when I was out there,” Nabers said. “Just getting back in my books and coming out here the next day at practice.”
Nabers’ ability to make plays was not in doubt before he was the No. 6 pick, and it remains unquestioned.
His ability to keep his cool when things don’t go his way was a pre-draft concern for the Giants, as shown on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
Plenty of players from both teams lost their cool over the past two days.
“Part of the balance is how do you really, really push yourself to compete at the highest level,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said before Tuesday’s practice, “but you have to keep your composure.”
Campbell said the Lions scouted Nabers but knew he was never going to be available late in the first round of the draft.
“I don’t know who wouldn’t have liked his tape,” Campbell said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete, and he’s got a ton of room to grow.”
It is unclear if Nabers will make his unofficial NFL debut Thursday against the Lions in the preseason opener.
“He’s been playing at a high level in practice,” Daboll said. “[We’ll] see if that translates to the games. I have a lot of confidence in Malik.”
