Dynasty Rookie Draft Advice: Malik Nabers (2024 Fantasy Football)

This is what we’ve been waiting for, fantasy football enthusiasts. The NFL Draft is under way, and we finally get to see where the rookie prospects are going to launch their professional careers. And NFL Draft landing spots allow us to start to zero in on fantasy football and dynasty rookie draft pick values. Here, we break down WR Malik Nabers and how he fits with the New York Giants.

Throughout the draft, we’ll take a closer look at fantasy-relevant prospects, giving you an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, and assessing their fantasy value in both redraft and dynasty formats.

Let’s dig in.

Fantasy Football Rookie Draft Outlook

Fitz’s Fantasy Football Outlook

The New York Giants have added one of the most highly regarded wide receivers in this class, selecting Malik Nabers of LSU with the sixth pick of the first round.

The 6-0, 199-pound Nabers is coming off an electric final season in Baton Rouge in which he caught 89 passes for 1,569 yards and 14 touchdowns in 13 games. As a sophomore, Nabers led the SEC with 72 receptions and had 1,017 yards and three TD catches.

Nabers is the best route-runner in the class. He has the acceleration of a performance sports car and can stop on a dime or change direction without losing speed. Nabers is an elite separator who seems destined to draw huge target totals in the NFL because he’ll be open so often.

As good a route-runner as Nabers is, he might be even better after the catch. Nabers ran a 4.38 at his pro day and seems to play even faster, slaloming around defenders as if they were traffic cones. And though he’s not a big receiver, Nabers is hard to bring down. In his final season at LSU, Nabers forced 30 missed tackles and had 309 receiving yards after contact.

Some will regard Nabers’ lack of size as a drawback, but his modest frame certainly hasn’t hindered him thus far.

Nabers should immediately become the go-to receiver in Brian Daboll’s offense. The Giants don’t have another high-volume receiver on the roster. Frankly, it’s not entirely clear whether the Giants have another good receiver on the roster, since the jury is still out on Jalin Hyatt and Wan’Dale Robinson, and Darius Slayton is average at best. The Giants are also awaiting word on whether TE Darren Waller will retire. QB Daniel Jones isn’t an ideal target distributor, but he’s not terrible either, so he’s not likely to singlehandedly torpedo Nabers’ fantasy fortunes.

Nabers can play inside or outside. He’s likely to spend a lot of time on the outside in his first year with the Giants, who have slot guys Robinson and Isaiah McKenzie on the roster.

In dynasty, Nabers has a consensus rookie ADP of WR2, and that’s where I have him as well. I’d take him second in a 1QB rookie draft and third in a superflex rookie draft, behind only QB Caleb Williams and WR Marvin Harrison Jr.

For redraft, Nabers had a predraft FantasyPros Expert Consensus Ranking of RB28 in half-point PPR redraft leagues and an Underdog best-ball ADP of WR23. I think he’s a phenomenal value at those prices and have him ranked WR16 in half-point PPR.

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Thor’s NFL Draft Profile & Player Comp

Malik Nabers | LSU
5117/199 | RAS: 9.67
Comp: Odell Beckham Jr.

We think of defenders as the ones who attack. Nabers’ game flips that on its head. Nabers is the Nikola Tesla of receivers. He’s in complete control of inexhaustible, high-wattage electricity.

Nabers is a break-neck route-runner with legitimately freaky movement. He generates separation at will due to his ludicrous stop/start ability – he accelerates 0-to-60 in a snap and can stop on a dime – and the fact that he loses zero momentum when changing directions.

Nabers sets the table for his route-break filth by throttling tempo and movement patterns unpredictably, almost like a cat playing with a mouse. For different reasons than Harrison Jr., you cannot strand someone on an island with Nabers. In fact, last year, Nabers slightly bested Harrison Jr. in PFF receiving grade percentile against single-coverage.

Once Nabers has the ball in his hands, the defense is in a car chase with Mario Andretti. Nabers is faster than anyone you have, and he’s just as evasive. Nabers’ 30 missed tackles, 309 receiving yards after contact and 43 explosive plays all finished No. 2 last season. He was named First-team AP All-American, having put up 1,569 receiving yards and 14 TDs.

Despite Nabers’ size and obvious after-the-catch ability, LSU spoon-fed him very few freebie targets. The Tigers instead leveraged Nabers’ athleticism to attack defenses deeper down the field. Nabers is a downfield killer. He has the athleticism to free himself and the leaping acrobatic style downfield to win jump balls.

He’s even more scary in the intermediate sector. By the data, Nabers wins wide-open separation at a rate comparable to anyone in the past 10 receiving classes. Hit him on the hands and you immediately unlock that special after-the-catch electricity.

Nabers has extremely reliable hands. So reliable, in fact, that he posted the exact same stellar drop rate each of the last two seasons: 5.3%. I particularly appreciate the smoothness with which he’s able to spear off-target balls outside his frame and without wasting motion or losing momentum become a runner.

Nabers has elements of his game that are similar stylistically to three active LSU star receivers currently in the NFL: Odell Beckham Jr., Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. My comp for him was Chase earlier in the process. But I felt Beckham was a closer encapsulation of the type of movement we are talking about. I wouldn’t argue with the use of any of that trio as his comp, however.

I only have two nitpicks with Nabers. He lacks play strength, something he can’t do anything about, and he always plays with his hands low. The latter is, many times, a strength – a delicious twist to the electric movement. It makes it extremely difficult to tell where Nabers is headed into a route break, and it also makes it more difficult to accurately gauge the speed at which he’s moving (because he doesn’t have the exaggerated arm swing of other speedsters).

However, this quirk can open up opportunities for defenders to jar him off the line in press when they’re lucky enough to get their hands on him. He has electric feet, but sometimes gets cute playing three-card monte off the line, opening up opportunities to get jarred and have his momentum stalled. A similar phenomenon can occur along the route if his man can stay close to him – jarring him with subtle contact.

Despite these minor concerns, Nabers is an elite prospect whose game is tailor-made for where the NFL is going. I’ve called him a “flying Ferrari” on the field – a Back to the Future step forward in the game’s speed-and-space evolution.

Check out more NFL Draft profiles and player comps from Thor in our 2024 NFL Draft Guide