'Hard Knocks' reveals Giants receivers coach preferred Malik Nabers over Marvin Harrison Jr
The newest episode of Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants is revealing that the months spent between seasons isn’t nearly as tedious as most fans thought. This week’s episode offered the detail that NY would’ve picked Malik Nabers straight up over Marvin Harrison Jr.
Sure, you can say that now as you talk up the guy you got. But this interesting morsel came up as the Giants were scouting the top three receiving prospects in the draft — Harrison, Nabers and Rome Odunze. Hard Knocks showed scenes of those three touring the Giants complex. Plus, quarterbacks Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels were there, too. Daniels and Nabers were teammates at LSU, while Maye was from North Carolina, Harrison went to Ohio State and Odunze starred at Washington.
John Mara, the Giants president and CEO, asked receivers coach Mike Groh who he’d pick from the Big Three, even someone else.
“So, you’re on the clock right now, you gotta make a decision, one of those three?” Mara asked Groh.
“I take Nabers,” Groh told his boss.
Cardinals took that decision out of Giants’ hands
When the first round rolled out on a Thursday night in late April, the Giants didn’t get the chance to make that specific choice. The Cardinals selected Harrison with the fourth pick, with New York staying put at No. 6 and grabbing Nabers. The Bears snatched Odunze at No. 9. Chicago owned two picks in the top 10 of the first round. They used the first to select Caleb Williams.
This week’s episode of Hard Knocks also revealed that Giants coach Brian Daboll would’ve loved to pick Daniels, who ended up going No. 2 to the Commanders.
“Let’s cut to the chase, do you want to be here?” Daboll asked the LSU quarterback. Daniels said yes.
However, Mara was cautious about the idea of trading up for a QB. He said this year’s draft situation reminded him of one that unfolded two decades earlier. That’s when the Giants selected Philip Rivers, then swapped him for Eli Manning, whom the Chargers selected. NY sweetened the deal by sending the Chargers a third-round pick in the draft, plus a first- and third-round pick for the next year.
Of course, the Giants won two Super Bowls with Manning under center.
Meanwhile, departed Giants running back Saquon Barkley also has been a figure in the docuseries. In an earlier episode, he was on the phone with GM Joe Schoen. Barkley said in an interview with The Athletic that he told Schoen he wanted to stick in the Meadowlands. But he said he didn’t want to beg the general manager.
“It was over after that phone call, in my opinion,” Barkley said of his time with the Giants. “It was over after that because I never in my heart truly believed they were going to match it, or they only wanted me for a lower price.”