Kyren Lacy had a dream to play in the NFL, take care of his family and play professionally with his LSU brothers and teammates.
So Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels and Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. are going to let Lacy, their late friend who died in April, live that dream through them this 2025 NFL season.
“That’s what we’re gonna do. [Me], B.T., ‘Five’ [Daniels], that’s what we gonna do,” Nabers said in May. “We gonna do it for him. He gonna live through us. And I know a lot of people say all the time, ‘Let him live through you.’ But it’s better when he living it for himself.”
The outside talk about Nabers, Daniels and Thomas entering their second NFL seasons, understandably, is about how these bright young stars can build on their impressive rookie stats and accomplishments:
Daniels won Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the Commanders to their first NFC Championship Game since 1991. Thomas made 87 catches for 1,282 yards (third in NFL) and 10 touchdowns. Nabers racked up 109 grabs, 1,204 yards and seven TDs.
These are human beings, though. Personally and emotionally, their hearts are with Lacy, who died of an apparent suicide in April and left his LSU brothers stunned and heartbroken.
All three players vented on social media with broken heart emojis and anguish when they received the news in the spring.
Thomas Jr., 22, who had been training with Lacy in Texas two weeks before the tragedy, said this August that “it’s been tough for me just trying to get past it or whatever, but I know what he would want us to do.”
Daniels, 24, vowed on Instagram that Lacy will “live yo dreams through us.” Asked how he was holding up during training camp, The Commanders QB acknowledged: “I’m good. Tough little situation. Obviously [Lacy was] someone close to me. Mental health is real. I appreciate you asking. I’m good.”
Nabers, 22, politely declined a Daily News interview request to speak about playing in Lacy’s honor, but he admitted on the “7PM in Brooklyn” podcast in the spring that “this is the first person I ever lost in my life … close to me.”
Nabers then revealed in the preseason that he is wearing thigh pads on his uniform that bear the image of Lacy and Nabers standing next to each other in their LSU uniforms — No. 2 for Lacy, No. 8 for Nabers. And the Giants receiver said he’ll be using Lacy’s touchdown dances in the end zone to send tribute up to his friend.
“Imma be switching out of those dances that he used to do when we used to play together,” Nabers told Bleacher Report, “so just to honor him and everybody remember his name. So I would just wanna, you know, show gratitude to him, so a couple of his dances I’m gonna be showing during the season.”
Lacy’s mother, Kandace, told TMZ that her “heart was full of joy and love” when she heard about Nabers’ plans to honor her late son.
“Malik is always looking out for us and checking on us just as the rest of Kyren’s many friends,” he said.
LSU receiver Trey’Dez Green honored Lacy by throwing up the number two when he scored a touchdown for the Tigers in their season opener against Clemson, as well.
“I watched in tears,” Kandace told TMZ. “When Trey’Dez made the touchdown and did the two, I lost it. I’m thankful to Trey’Dez for even thinking of Kyren in that moment. It was amazing to see.”
Lacy, who was only 24 years old, died just when Nabers believed his friend was on the verge of breaking through to a better place and life.
Lacy’s NFL Draft was approaching, one year after his three friends had been top 10 picks. And the criminal charges Lacy was facing from a fatal car accident in December were on the verge of being heard by a grand jury.
“Everything was about to get relieved,” Nabers said on “7PM in Brooklyn.”
Stunningly, however, Lacy was found dead on a Saturday night in Houston, having died in an apparent suicide in his car while being pursued by authorities, according to a Harris County (Texas) sheriff’s report.
According to Harris County authorities, police responded to a call from a female family member who said Lacy had discharged a firearm into the ground during a verbal argument late Saturday night. When they arrived on the scene, they learned that the suspect, Lacy, had fled in a vehicle.
Authorities said their pursuit of Lacy ended when he crashed. They say that when officers approached the vehicle to extract Lacy, he had died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Lacy was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.
When Nabers woke up to the news on his phone, he said “every thought in my head was, like, blank.”
“I didn’t know how to think,” he said. “I didn’t know who to call. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to do. And then all the memories started playing back of me and him. And I’m like, ‘Nah, not him. This can’t be true.’”
The Giants receiver said as reflected on how this could have happened, his “biggest regret” is “not taking him with us when we got drafted.” Something went wrong with Nabers, Daniels and Thomas Jr. not there physically with Lacy on a consistent basis.
“I was trying to put the blueprint, because I wanted him to be successful so bad,” Nabers said. “Because I knew what he was going through, what he was fighting for. I knew he had these two brothers that he wanted to take care of. I knew he had his mom that he wanted to take care of. And I pushed him to that.”
“And when he was around me and Jayden and BT, it was so good,” the receiver added. “His whole mindset was changing. He wanted to be around us. He wanted to be different. He wanted to have the same dreams that we had, and we pushed him to that, because we knew he wanted that. And when we went away, some of the things we left him with started coming out of his head. I’m not sure what happened, but I regret leaving.”
Lacy had been charged with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run and reckless operation of a vehicle stemming from a fatal December car crash.
He was accused of causing a crash that killed a 78-year-old man and then fleeing the scene without rendering aid or calling authorities. On Jan. 12, he had turned himself in to authorities, was jailed and then released on $151,000 bail, according to police records.
But Lacy’s attorney, Matthew Ory, had told ESPN in the spring that he was “very confident the evidence, after being fully collected and reviewed, would lead to a declination of charges” and that “we will be demanding a full and transparent review of how this investigation was conducted and why.”
And Lacy’s 58 catches for 866 yards and nine touchdowns in his final LSU season promised to land him on some NFL team with an opportunity to live out his dream.
In a social media post after Lacy’s death, Lacy’s father, Kenny Lacy, urged parents to check on their children’s mental health.
“Our lives have changed forever and this will never be ok, but God needed my baby more than he was needed here,” Kenny Lacy wrote on Facebook. “This has to be the biggest pill our families have had to swallow but I know the love and compassion in our families will get us through.”
Nabers, Daniels and Thomas Jr. don’t need a reminder to keep Lacy on their minds when they take the field Sunday for their Week 1 NFL season openers.
When Nabers and Daniels take the field to warm up at Washington’s Northwest Stadium, in fact, there’s a good bet that Nabers will have the rapper NBA YoungBoy on his headphones.
“Me and him always sent lyrics of NBA YoungBoy [and said] ‘Bro, he talkin’ on this song,’” Nabers said. “We’d always do that. And there’s some things that a song might come on and just bring me back to just, ‘Dang, I ain’t never gonna be able to do that again.’”
It might have been too painful to hear those songs in spring. But now here in the fall, Nabers views this season as a tribute to his late friend.
“All he wanted to do was play in the NFL, get his moms right, get his little brothers right,” Nabers said, getting choked up. “And it’s not gonna happen. And I gotta find a way to live with that. I gotta find a way to put my head around that.
“I gotta do it for him.”
