A short 18 months ago, Malik Nabers was just trying to field a punt.

Nabers was the guy who probably wanted to be anywhere else on that Sunday night to kick off the 2022 season. Muffing a couple of punts on national television is tough for anyone, much less a 19-year-old who was trying to make an impression on a new coaching staff. He took heat for that in the postgame from Brian Kelly.

“You evaluate him through 4 weeks of practice, and you feel comfortable that with his elite skill-set and his mindset that he’s gonna be able to do a great job,” Kelly said after the 2022 FSU loss. “And that wasn’t the case. That was a mistake that we made.”

Yes, it was a mistake to ask Nabers to field punts. It’s why he was never asked to do it again in his college career. But it would’ve been an unforgivable mistake for Kelly to move on from Nabers as a receiver.

Quietly, Kelly showed faith in him that night by keeping him in the game late when LSU rallied in the 4th quarter. Not so quietly 16 months later, Kelly did right by Nabers by pulling him from the bowl game after he set the all-time LSU receiving record.

Nabers wanted to stay in, Kelly said afterward. That was a coach’s decision to let him earn that honor and then walk off without anything getting in the way of his NFL riches.

Strangely, it almost feels like Nabers’ rise to potential top-10 pick is on the back burner. After all, he’s not expected to be the first receiver off the board. Marvin Harrison Jr. seems to have WR1 status locked in. In addition to Washington star Rome Odunze, they could both hear their names called before Nabers. Shoot, there’s a decent chance that Nabers isn’t even the first LSU player off the board. Jayden Daniels has firmly moved into the top-2 conversation after his meteoric rise in Baton Rouge.

Maybe Nabers’ emergence continues to be somewhat of an afterthought because he wasn’t a Biletnikoff Award winner like Ja’Marr Chase, nor did he have a rise like Justin Jefferson, who went from being the last scholarship offered in LSU’s 2017 class to becoming perhaps the best receiver on the planet.

Nabers could soon be in the same conversation as his fellow LSU legends. For now, he stands above them on the Tigers’ all-time leaderboard. That’s at the top of the 20-year-old’s résumé. Or at least one would assume it is.

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But let’s go back to well before Nabers hit 3,003 yards at the end of his third and final season. That night in New Orleans against Florida State to start 2022 might’ve felt like a worst-case scenario for destroying a second-year player’s confidence. It proved to be the opposite, thanks in large part to Daniels. What got lost in the shuffle of that night was Daniels’ willingness not only to pick up Nabers on the sideline — he tried to do the same for an uninvolved Kayshon Boutte but was met with different results — but also his trust in him.

When LSU mounted that comeback, Daniels started the drive by finding Nabers on consecutive plays. That proved to be a trend early in 2022. When the Tigers needed to rally, an emerging Daniels turned to Nabers. A lot. Nabers went from entering the season as a secondary option behind Boutte and Brian Thomas Jr. to finishing 6th among Power 5 receivers with 24 first-down receptions in the second half/overtime.

Yes, that’s a specific stat. But look at Nabers compared to his LSU teammates in first-down receptions in the second half/OT in 2022:

  • Malik Nabers — 24
  • Kyren Lacy — 11
  • Kayshon Boutte — 11
  • Jaray Jenkins — 10
  • Brian Thomas Jr. — 9

Nabers also led the SEC with 15 3rd-down conversion receptions (only 7 Power 5 wideouts had more than that). Clutch? Yeah. Reliable? As long as he’s not fielding punts, you bet.

Then, of course, he took that to a different level in 2023.

Just for a little more perspective on how special Nabers was in his pre-Draft season, here’s a reminder:

  • No. 1 in FBS in receiving yards/game (most among any SEC player since 2020)
  • No. 1 in FBS in 20-yard catches (tied for most among any FBS player since 2019 Ja’Marr Chase also had 34)
  • No. 1 in FBS in 30-yard catches (tied for most among Power 5 players since 2020 DeVonta Smith also had 17)
  • No. 1 in FBS in receiving yards/game vs. conference foes (most among any FBS player since 2019 Ja’Marr Chase)
  • No. 1 in Power 5 in first-down conversions in second half/OT (tied for most among Power 5 players in 2020s)
  • No. 2 in Power 5 in receiving TDs (behind only teammate Brian Thomas Jr.)
  • No. 6. in Power 5 in receptions (5 more than 2019 Ja’Marr Chase who had 14 games)

You get it. Nabers was a walking chunk play. Daniels needed Nabers and Nabers needed Daniels.

Nobody could cover Nabers, and LSU did a tremendous job of moving him across the formation. He lined up out wide on 349 snaps compared to 347 in the slot (he also had 6 snaps at inline with 5 snaps in the backfield). That versatility will be a weapon at the next level, too. It certainly worked for Jefferson and Chase.

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It’s funny to think that by the time those 2 finished at LSU — Jefferson left after 2019 and Chase opted out of the 2020 season — Nabers was still committed to Mississippi State. Forget being a 5-star recruit. Nabers wasn’t even a top-200 recruit in the 247sports composite rankings. Nobody was wondering if Nabers would be the second coming of either Chase or Jefferson even after the Louisiana native flipped to LSU just a week before the 2021 Early Signing Period.

The great Barton Simmons at 247sports once compared Nabers instead to former Memphis star Anthony Miller and projected him as an “understated prospect that we think will maximize his ability be an impact Power 5 starter on either side of the football and be a mid-round NFL Draft pick.”

Simmons was wrong about Nabers being a mid-round pick one day — it’ll be a surprise if he’s still on the board in the latter half of Round 1 — but he was right about a couple things. Nabers definitely made an impact as a Power 5 starter. He’s easily one of the best SEC receivers of the Playoff era.

Somehow, though, Nabers is still an understated prospect.