Big Blue View
Malik Nabers, the New York Giants’ most explosive play-maker on offense, is gone for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL. He is, as quarterback Jaxson Dart has said, “one of one.” The Giants cannot and will not be able to conjure up a player who can do all of the things for them that Nabers could do.
They still, though, have 13 games to play. They have to find the best ways they can to run good offense and give rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart a chance to develop and succeed. Someone has to fill Nabers’ spot in the lineup and catch passes from Dart.
That’s life in the NFL. A player goes down, sometimes a star player, and other players have to play. Those other players get an opportunity to show whether or not they can be more than their team had previously been asking them to be.
For the Giants, the obvious candidates to get the snaps that would have gone to Nabers are third-year wide receiver Jalin Hyatt and undrafted rookie Beaux Collins. Maybe the Giants elevate someone like Lil’Jordan Humphrey from their practice squad. Maybe they add someone from another team’s practice squad, or sign a street free agent. Maybe they eventually make a trade for a receiver they think could help them.
For now, though, Hyatt and Collins are likely to get the bulk of the chances. I spoke with each in the Giants’ locker room this week.
Victor Cruz joined the Giants in 2010 as an undrafted free agent out of UMass, and was a star from 2011 until suffering a devastating knee injury in 2014. Since then, Giants fans have waited … and waited … and waited while hoping the team finds another Cruz.
Corey Washington. Travis Rudolph. Alonzo Russell. Alex Bachman. Tight end Chris Conrad. Bryce Ford-Wheaton. All teased fans in preseason. None ever made a receiving impact in real NFL games.
What of Collins, the former Notre Dame wide receiver who is now the latest Giants undrafted free agent receiver?
“As a receiver, I always want to go out there and make plays, score touchdowns, things like that,” Collins said. “I’m striving to be the best receiver I can be, obviously.
“But if the coaches put me on special teams, I’ve got to kind of shift the blinders towards that, be the best special team player I can be. So wherever my feet are at in the moment, that’s what I really try to look forward to. I’ve got goals and just being in the league for a long time and things like that.”
Collins is 6-foot-3, 206 pounds. He has gotten 32 offensive snaps without a target so far this season, and has made two tackles while playing 51 special teams snaps.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic correctly listed Collins as a priority free agent in his 2025 draft guide. Brugler wrote:
A loose, limber athlete, Collins can alter...
