As stated in the opening of the Marvin Harrison profile, this year’s draft is loaded with both depth and high end talent. Listen to enough NFL mock draft experts and you’ll find more than a sparse few who are making a legitimate argument for Malik Nabers to be considered the top wide receiver in this class.
I couldn’t put him ahead of Harrison – Harrison is an almost perfect prospect – but Nabers is more than a consolation prize as the second wide receiver likely to come off the board.
Malik Nabers – WR, Louisiana State
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 200 lbs
Year: Junior
Age: 20.7
NFL Player Comparison: Healthy Odell Beckham Jr influenced by Ja’Marr Chase
Malik Nabers has the potential to become elite. He’s Ja’Marr Chase good. His 3.83 receiving yards per team pass attempt was the highest out of any power-five receiver in the class and is honestly a pretty absurd number to reach. He also had at least one catch of at least 20 yards in all twelve regular season games in 2023, and 78.7% of his catches in 2023 resulted in a first down or a touchdown. That’s absolutely mindblowing.
Nabers won’t even turn 21 by the time of the NFL draft – having this level of breakout at this age is almost unprecedented. His freshman season wasn’t anything to write home about, which should be expected considering he was 17, but Nabers grew into a leadership role in his sophomore season. He led the SEC in catches over each of the last two seasons and had back to back 1,000 yard campaigns while refining his game to include more outside routes than he had previously run. The last player to have this high of a yards per team pass attempt and enter the draft under the age of 21 was Amari Cooper in 2011. Which is a pretty good baseline for where we would expect Nabers career to go.
Nabers is a big play waiting to happen. He’s incredibly athletic, has a muscular frame and very long arms for his height that led him to averaging an absurd 17.6 yards per catch in 2023. He brings speed that takes the top off of defences and has an acceleration that helps him rack up massive yards after the catch. Not only can Nabers use his twitchy explosiveness to blow past defenders, he also boasts top level ability to stop on a dime and create separation by snapping off curl routes, dig routes and comebacks that leave defenders wondering what just happened. There are routes that he runs where he looks like he just hit the defender with an Allen Iverson level crossover as they stumble trying to get their feet back under them.
Nabers is such a high level deep threat already – his nine touchdowns of twenty-plus yards in 2023 was second in the nation – but he also brings a side of the game that we don’t normally see in pure burner wide receivers. Nabers is an absolute workhorse on and off the field. He has excellent body control and high level competitiveness at the point of the catch. 50-50 balls that are thrown his way (which there were many this past season with Jayden Daniels) become a 75-25 ball with Nabers in the vicinity. He’s able to deceive defenders by almost never showing his hands too early, giving him the chance to reach up and snag the ball before the corner even knows it’s coming.
Nabers certainly has some things to work on to reach the lofty ceiling he has. He will definitely need to get better against physical corners – something he will see plenty of at the NFL level. He has a tendency to be pushed off of his routes, particularly at the line of scrimmage. He ran routes in the slot at a 54% rate at LSU which led to him getting a ton of free release, allowing him to take advantage of the defences. I imagine whoever drafts him will try and keep him involved in pre snap motions much like how the Cowboys used CeeDee Lamb this past season. So there are methods to help negate this issue, but that’s not always a foolproof method. If Nabers can add some more upper body strength to win more of the hand fighting at the line, it would do wonders for his NFL career. Considering how young he still is, it’s conceivable that this is something he can overcome as he matures, but we’ve yet to see it in game action.
His sideline awareness will also need to improve. While he can smoothly adjust his frame and flash his hands at the last moment, he doesn’t excel at both making the catch and tapping his toes inbounds on throws along the sideline. Honestly, his footwork as a whole could use some improvement. He slips on a few too many routes as he tends to get a little ahead of himself and stumbles while making some of his cuts. His cuts, changes of directions and slowdowns on routes were high level at the college level, but polishing up the smaller details will be helpful at the NFL level.
It’s hard to envision a world where Nabers doesn’t become a dynamic playmaker in the NFL. While he only has average size and strength, he has dynamic potential and can win almost any route with his ability to accelerate and decelerate at such an elite level. Today’s NFL caters to players like Nabers who can create things on his own. He was quoted saying his favourite play call is the jet sweep, so if he lands with an offensive coordinator with even an ounce of creativity, Nabers will become a quick star in this league.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: Tammy Anthony Baker. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.