Donald Fusilier saw all he needed to see.
Fifteen-year-old Malik Nabers was putting on a show during 7-on-7 tryouts, contorting his body mid-air to complete mind-bending catches above opponents’ heads.
But when another set of kids began to show up, Nabers ditched the group he had been playing with all morning to join the new crowd. Coaches shouted at him, asking what he was doing. Turns out he was headed over to play with kids his own age. The group he had been posterizing all morning was made up of 17- and 18-year-olds.
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“He was dominating … terrorizing them,” said Fusilier, then the new coach for the Louisiana Bootleggers 7-on-7 squad.
The tryout, at NFL veteran Ryan Clark’s training facility — Traction Sports Performance in Baton Rouge, La. — took place on Tonya Nabers’ only day off over a long stretch as she worked two jobs and a side hustle doing hair. Earlier that morning, she had woken up to a notification that an unexpected transaction had left her with $20 in the bank. She could have viewed the 50-plus-mile trip from their home in Lafayette as a luxury the family couldn’t afford.
But her son had been telling her since he was 8 years old — after he saw his cousin’s football trophies — that his dream was to play in the NFL. So she found a way to make it work.
“As a single mom, I didn’t know how to get my son in front of the people who needed to see him,” Tonya said. “And so I kept praying, ‘Lord, just let somebody see. Just let one person see his talent.”
After his display that morning, Fusilier approached Tonya. He wanted Malik for the Bootleggers.
“He was a very high competitor,” said Fusilier, now the offensive pass game coordinator/WR coach at Graceland University. “He was a big focal point not only in contributing to that team but to set the standard for the future for other kids that came behind.”
After selecting him sixth in the 2024 draft, the Giants will need Nabers’ confidence and competitiveness as they look to rally from a 6-11 finish last year. They are counting on their rookie wide receiver bringing out the best in incumbent quarterback Daniel Jones — and the offense as a whole. If the past is any indication, Nabers is up for the challenge.
Deemed a four-star recruit by 247Sports ahead of his junior year of high school, Nabers was forced to spend his senior season on the sidelines.
After he and Tonya moved to nearby Youngsville, Malik was ruled ineligible — a state rule forbade players from following coaches, and Nabers’ former defensive coordinator at Ovey Comeaux High School was now coaching at Youngsville’s Southside High School, where Nabers had transferred.
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The family cried when the decision was made. Tonya worried the hurt would devastate Malik. Instead, it brought out the best in him. “He used what happened his senior year to continue to fuel him,” she said.
Unable to play, Nabers passed on the knowledge he’d gained from college camps to the Southside receivers room; he challenged his teammates to races and pushup contests and played any position on the scout team.
“I think he understood, big picture, he was gonna be OK in the long run, but still, you’re 17,” former Southside head coach Josh Fontenot said. “Most 17-year-olds don’t have that foresight.”
One week, Fontenot asked Nabers to line up at defensive end. He wreaked havoc on Southside’s offensive line. “He had it in his mind every day that he was going to make our offensive tackle’s life just miserable,” Fontenot said. “He did it so well, it almost got annoying.”
“They were just too slow for him,” Southside teammate Dillon Monette said. “Once the ball was hiked, he was already in the backfield.”
It was difficult being a bystander on Friday nights, but “going out there and practicing and giving those guys extra looks, they saw a different teammate in me,” Nabers said, “the teammate that wanted to help those guys win.”
He committed to Mississippi State the summer before his senior year, but LSU offered in late September, and on signing day he flipped to the Tigers. Growing up, Nabers idolized the program’s all-time standouts, particularly Odell Beckham Jr. He told his cousin Jordan Allen (a current LSU safety) that he didn’t want to be the only player from their city not going to Baton Rouge.
It wasn’t so much the school that drew him but the idea of challenging himself against the greats who came before. By choosing LSU, Nabers could stay home and prove himself.
The route to stardom started a little slow. Nabers missed two games with a shoulder injury his freshman year and then muffed two punts in the opener of his sophomore season. But by the end of that year, he was within striking distance of 1,000 yards. So he decided he was going to make it happen.
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He entered the 2022 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl against Purdue with 854 yards, and by late in the third quarter, he had racked up 88 more on eight catches, putting him at 942 for the season.
The Tigers were pounding the Boilermakers 42-0. Starting quarterback Jayden Daniels had already been removed. Nabers knew he didn’t have too many snaps left. Standing on the sidelines, he called his shot.
He told LSU wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton that if they called his play — a jet sweep with a short pass forward — he would score. The Tigers were 75 yards to the end zone. “Give them a heads up,'” Hankton recalled Nabers saying.
Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock gave him his chance, and Nabers took care of the rest, making two quick cuts before slashing across the field and leaving the Boilermakers defense in his dust en route to his predicted touchdown and his first 1,000-yard season.
“It was like he went into another gear,” said Hankton, who tried recruiting Nabers to Georgia before coming to LSU in 2022. “It blew my mind, because he literally said, ‘If they call this play, ‘I’m gonna score.'”
The following season, after learning how close he was to becoming the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards, Nabers would have made lightning strike twice had it not been for a late holding penalty that erased a 75-yard score against Texas A&M in LSU’s regular-season finale.
He’d later break Josh Reed’s career record in the Reliaquest Bowl against Wisconsin, racking up the 22 yards he needed before opting out of the second half of the game.
“Who is Malik Nabers? When you watch those two plays … then you understand exactly who he is in terms of willing himself to do something,” said Hankton. “Those two plays speak volumes.”
The record speaks for itself. The legacy of wide receivers who have passed through LSU is among the best in the nation. On his way to surpassing Reed, Nabers topped the likes of Jarvis Landry, Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson and, of course, Beckham. In trying to be like them, Nabers represented their shared mantra: “Wide Receiver Type S—,” which he got tattooed on his body.
WE HERE! #WRTS✈️🟣🟡🙌🏾🙏🏾💪🏾 pic.twitter.com/qwkInogjJh
— Cortez Hankton Jr. (@Coach_Hankton) April 25, 2024
“Those other guys had some very similar qualities that Nabers possesses to achieve the things that they’ve achieved,” said Denbrock, now the OC at Notre Dame. “I think it’s something that the receivers who have played at LSU over the years take a great deal of pride in — not only competing with the people around them but competing with the people that have come before them and living up to the standard that has been set.”
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Ahead of LSU’s 2023 season, Nabers asked Hankton, who had become a mentor, to make a deal with him.
“I was like, ‘Alright, what’s the deal?'” Hankton said.
“If I’m going first round, you got to get my suit,” Nabers said.
“That’s easy,” Hankton told Nabers. “Done.”
As Nabers’ final season at LSU unfolded, Hankton realized he was going to lose their bet. Nabers quickly established himself as not only a first-round caliber player — despite some pre-draft character concerns that, in part, stemmed from a 2023 misdemeanor weapons charge that was later dropped — but one likely to be selected inside the top 10.
Some draft evaluators believed that he, and not Marvin Harrison Jr., should have been the first receiver selected. One NFL offensive assistant coach said, “It’s Nabers, and then there’s a gap,” to The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman before the draft. “He is the best wide receiver in the draft in a couple of years, maybe more.
“He is Tyreek Hill combined with both of those San Francisco guys (Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk). He is so explosive. He has a second gear. He can stop on a dime. He breaks tackles. You can’t jam him because he’s just too quick, and if you miss at all, he’s gonna outrun you.”
Harrison ended up going No. 4 to the Arizona Cardinals. The Giants took Nabers two spots later.
“He’s always looking to prove a point and prove people wrong,” Hankton said. “His motivation is purely internal, which I believe is going to lead him to be a great player at that next level because it’s not gonna be about the money. It’s not gonna be about necessarily the statistics, although those are both things anyone playing at that level desires. He just has this yearning, and sometimes just overpowering mindset to be the best.”
Hankton believes that stems in part from wanting better for Tonya, whom Hankton called Naber’s “rock, core and why.”
“He wants to do everything that he can and make a better life for his mother,” Hankton said. “Because (her) same sacrifice, dedication and commitment are the same traits that he brings to the game of football.”
"Next thing is to get mom a house."
Malik Nabers' NFL dream came true on draft night 🙌 @Giants @whyguard13 pic.twitter.com/02zQIZzPRb
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) May 2, 2024
When Tonya first saw her son in the suit Hankton had made for him, she had to go get her makeup touched up. Once the draft started, she kept twiddling a ring on her finger as she waited for the call that would change her son’s life.
Giants GM Joe Schoen ended their wait, putting Nabers in a position to once again try to surpass Beckham Jr.’s exploits. Not long after making their pick, Schoen and coach Brian Daboll told the world why they couldn’t pass on the receiver.
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“The competitiveness, some of the best (receivers) I’ve been around, they have that,” said Schoen. “To me, it always goes back to grit, toughness, tenacity. You can’t coach that. You can’t teach that. I think this kid best illustrates it.”
In addition to coaching him with the Bootleggers, Fusilier coached Nabers in high school and became a trusted mentor. He was among the family and friends at the draft, watching Nabers complete his path to the NFL that started all those years ago in Baton Rouge. And his characterization of Nabers speaks to what made the Giants believe in his former pupil.
“He don’t care who’s out there,” Fusilier said. “His mindset is to destroy you.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
