Giants WR Malik Nabers Sounds Off on Heated Moment with Brian Daboll
The New York Giants opened the 2025 campaign with an ugly 21-6 loss at the hands of the Washington Commanders, extinguishing pretty much all of the hype that surrounded the team entering the season. In only the first game of the season, frustrations boiled over between wide receiver Malik Nabers and head coach Brian Daboll, with a heated interaction between the two quickly catching the attention of fans.
After a rough 2024 campaign, the hope was that the Giants could show some sort of improvement in 2025, but at least through one game, they appeared to be the exact same team as last season. That included tempers flaring on the sidelines, and after the game, Nabers took a second to address what went down between him and Daboll.
Malik Nabers Opens Up on Brian Daboll Confrontation
One of the bright spots from the Giants’ aforementioned awful 2024 season was Nabers, who quickly proved to be one of the top wide receivers in the league after getting selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Despite playing in one of the worst offenses in the league, Nabers racked up 109 receptions, 1,204 yards, and seven touchdowns as a rookie, which earned him a Pro Bowl selection.
In Week 1 against the Commanders, the Giants’ offense once again struggled, with Nabers being one of the only productive players on the field for them. Nabers caught five passes for a team-high 71 yards, which is even more impressive when considering how quarterback Russell Wilson only threw for 168 total yards.
Along the way, Nabers got into a heated conversation with Daboll on the sidelines, which was picked up on Fox’s broadcast of the game. When asked about the incident after the game, Nabers downplayed it, saying he and Daboll simply want to win and that the heat of the moment got the best of both of them.
“I said I was gonna speak up when it was time for me to speak up or just trying to get guys going, trying to get everything going,” Nabers said after the game. “I felt like we was lacking out there, the energy wasn’t right … It was two competitive people going at it. He wants to win, I want to win. I feel like that’s the reason he got me over here, because of how me and him are alike. It was two people just going at it, we trying to get the same outcome. That was really all.”
Malik Nabers, Brian Daboll Turn Attention to Giants’ Week 2 Matchup
GettyNew York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers.
The Giants have a lot of new faces in town, so there are obviously going to be some growing pains as the 2025 season unfolds. After enduring a rough 2024 campaign, though, it’s clear that Nabers does not want to go through that again, and he’s intent on doing whatever he can to help his team win, even if it results in some tough conversations being had.
It didn’t work in Week 1, but there’s still a lot of football left to be played this season. Things won’t get any easier for New York, though, as they have another tough divisional matchup on their slate in Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants will look to at least put together a more competitive matchup, with kickoff for this clash being scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Packers’ Colby Wooden Fires Back at Critics After Dominant Run Defense Performance
Micah Parsons, a contrarian opinion had taken hold, too–the Packers defense would get chewed up in the running game.Three days before the Packers were to play the Detroit Lions in their 2025 opener, defensive lineman Colby Wooden got a phone call. It was his father. While much attention had been foisted on the Packers in recent days after the stunning trade for pass-rusher
The Packers had to trade away stalwart defensive lineman Kenny Clark to acquire Parsons, and the feeling was, that would be costly in the team’s efforts to handle the run. Detroit, after all, rushed for 2,488 yards last season, sixth in the NFL. Without Clark, surely the Packers would be in trouble.
Wooden, who is helping replace Clark in the middle, took the call from his dad, who said, “Do me a favor, shut ‘em up.”
And he, along with the entire Packers defensive front, did just that, holding the Lions to 46 yards on 22 carries, their lowest rushing output since Week 6 in 2023. Wooden, Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks held the line admirably in the middle all day for the Packers.
Colby Wooden: ‘I Took That Personal’
Wooden, for one, was insulted by the questions about the team’s inability to hold against the run.
“I for sure took that personal …” Wooden said. “So I just, did my job, went out there, stopped the run. I took it personal. Honestly, I felt like it was kinda disrespectful, like, ‘Oh, they gonna run the ball.’ So I made it my mission—we, excuse me—we made it our mission to shut them down.”
That’s not easy to do against the combo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, nicknamed Sonic and Knuckles.
“We know what they want to do,” Wooden said. “Last year, they wanted to run. They call them Sonic and Knuckles, or whatever. They want to run them 30 times. So we know they want to run that ball. We’ve got to do our job to stop the run so they can get back and let (Parsons) go get them.”
Packers Filling Roles With Micah Parsons on Board
Wooden said the effect of having Parsons on the field was obvious, and it works both ways. When offenses focus on corralling Parsons, the other Packers must step up.
“Everybody’s got a job to do, everybody got a role,” Wooden said. “Everybody’s got to buy into their role. We know what attention and what he comes with. And we know we got to stop that run, go help him out, if he is getting is getting chipped, doubled or whatever, now it’s somebody else’s turn to win their one-on-one.”
Packers Have Commanders Next
And despite the obviously encouraging results, Wooden is not getting ahead of himself. The Commanders will be next on the docket, with fearsome young quarterback Jayden Daniels on hand.
“It’s just one week,” Wooden said. “It’s Week 1. It’s great to start off with a win, dominate. But we’ve got to keep it going. We got a good team coming here on Thursday, we know we got to be ready to stop that run and contain that quarterback. So we just gotta keep going, keep getting better, keep jelling.”
