How Rookie Receiver Malachi Fields is Bringing 'Bully Ball' to Giants' Offense

New York Giants rookie receiver Malachi Fields is well known among league scouting circles for his elite catch radius and his 47.3% career success rate on 50-50 balls.

During Day 2 of the team’s minicamp, Fields put some of those traits on display, hauling in every ball that came his way and showing nice burst on slant routes where he often was able to come up with yards after the catch.

“I think just beating the guy in front of you, first of all,” Fields said of his impressive-looking practice in which he was among the standouts from head coach John Harbaugh’s first Giants rookie class.

“(That) and having the confidence to come through the middle knowing sometimes it's going to be a hit. It's about the ball, I think. Just securing the catch and then getting what you can get.”

But there’s another aspect of his game that doesn’t get as much credit, which probably should, and that’s his willingness and ability to be a blocker when the role calls for it.

Although blocking isn’t what gets receivers paid the big money, it’s still a key part of their duties. And it’s something that the Giants lost earlier in the offseason when Wan’Dale Robinson, the team’s best run-blocking wide receiver (67.1 PFF grade), bolted for Tennessee.

Fields, who posted respectable PFF blocking grades of 65.6 in run blocking and 66.6 in pass blocking last season for Notre Dame, should be able to fill that gap when called upon. In fact, as far as he’s concerned, it’s all part of a day’s work.

“I definitely think I was someone who always wanted to be a part of going and getting a block, covering up a guy in the backfield,” he said.

“Those dudes do the same thing in pass protection. They pick up the blitzing linebackers and stick their nose in there. I can only return the favor when they have the ball in their hands.”

Harbaugh is just fine with that. “He was a blocker,” he said with a grin. “I mean, look at him. He better be. He's got no excuse not to be. He was at Notre Dame, and that's how Coach does it there. Marcus (Freeman) has got those guys playing physical.”

That all feeds into Harbaugh’s new “bully ball” mantra that he is crafting with his first Giants roster. The veteran head coach doesn’t want a team that gets pushed around, as it often was in the past, in some aspects of the game. He wants a dominating, aggressive, but smart team that imposes its will on the opponent.

That will take the rest of the spring and into the summer to really build up, as the head coach wants the players to focus on learning and understanding their assignments so that when Week 1 rolls around, they’re ready to butt heads and come out victorious.

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