The New Orleans Saints don’t have to solve everything against the New York Giants. They just have to make life miserable for Malik Nabers.
That’s the central problem for New Orleans this week, because the former LSU wideout is starting to look dangerous again after his ACL tear in Year 2 slowed him down. Nabers missed a step early in the season, but the last two weeks have pushed him right back toward the version everyone expected to see.
He hadn’t cleared 100 total yards or found the end zone in the first three games. Then he followed that with back-to-back games of over 100 yards and a touchdown.
Even now, Nabers says he’s still not all the way back, though he believes he’s getting closer to full strength. The results say the ramp-up is already here.
And the Giants are treating him like the centerpiece of everything they do through the air. Nabers was targeted 20 times last week, and offensive coordinator Matt Nagy even joked that Nabers could see Puka Nacua’s 27 targets in the future. Joke or not, the message is clear: this offense runs through Nabers.
That makes this a test for the entire Saints secondary, not just one matchup. The Giants can line Nabers up outside, where they use him most often, or slide him inside to create problems there too. The Saints will need to account for him on every dropback from Jameis Winston.
The deep threat is real, too. Nabers has been the second most targeted receiver 20+ yards down the field, which means the safeties have to be alert if Winston starts taking shots. He’s a weapon on screens, he’s dangerous on the boundary, and he’s just as comfortable working inside.
That slot usage is where things get even trickier. NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky broke down how the Giants have maximized Nabers’ value there, pointing to the gravitational pull of Isaiah Likely and to Nabers’ own feel for the game and the space around him. The Saints have had their own issues with tight ends, and Nabers can make them pay when the coverage shifts.
Jonas Sanker figures to be in the spotlight when Nabers lines up inside. He’s been solid in the slot, but there have also been a couple of moments where he’s lost track of his assignment. Outside, Nabers can still feast on the cushion Saints corners tend to give.
If Nabers keeps playing the way he has over the last two weeks, New Orleans could be in for a very long afternoon.
In Other News...
Jameis Winston Still Has Saints Fans Feeling A Certain Way
Jameis Winstons time in New Orleans never followed a straight line, but it left a mark. Over three seasons with the Saints, he spent two of them in a backup role and stepped in for 10 starts when injuries forced the issue, giving fans a look at both his resilience and the personality that helped him win them over. More than just a stop on his rsum, New Orleans became the place where Winstons leadership and presence reshaped the way plenty of people viewed him.
Now, as he gets ready for a familiar kind of spotlight, the old connection is still part of the story. Saints fans never really stopped feeling a certain way about Winston, and that speaks to how much his time here mattered beyond wins and losses. The reunion angle is obvious enough, but the more interesting part is how a player once folded into the Saints daily life still carries that bond with him wherever he goes. [Read more 🡒]
Kellen Moore Enters A Saints Game He Cant Afford To Mismanage
Kellen Moore heads into Week 6 with the kind of margin for error that barely exists in New Orleans right now. A 1-4 start has already put the Saints under a harsh spotlight, and owner Gayle Bensons frustration has only sharpened the scrutiny around a team trying to find answers on both sides of the ball. The matchup with the Giants is more than another game on the schedule because the Saints need cleaner offense, steadier defense and a plan that looks like it belongs to a team capable of climbing out of this hole.
For Moore, the pressure is no longer just about drawing up a sharper opening script. It is about how quickly he can adjust once the game starts going sideways, because the Saints have not given themselves much room to absorb another poor outing. New Orleans does not need a neat explanation for why the season has gone off track. It needs evidence that the coaching can still fix something before the noise around the team gets even louder. [Read more 🡒]
Saints Suddenly Face A Giants Rookie Who Can Wreck This Game
The Saints offense has spent the week mapping out the Giants defense, and the rookie in the middle of it is impossible to ignore. Arvell Reese has quickly become a centerpiece for New York, showing the kind of versatility that lets him move around the formation and affect plays in a bunch of different ways, which is exactly the sort of problem New Orleans cannot afford to overlook.
For a Saints unit trying to clean up its own execution, Reese changes the feel of the matchup. He has been active all over the field and has already shown he can flash as both a tackler and a playmaker, so New Orleans will have to know where he is on every snap if it wants to give itself a real shot at moving the ball cleanly. [Read more 🡒]