Five games into the season, Isaiah Likely is already making the Giants look smart for betting big on him.
New York gave the tight end a three-year, $40 million contract in the offseason, even though he had never entered the NFL as a full-time starter. That gamble came with plenty of preseason buzz, and so far, Likely has backed it up in a hurry.
He leads the Giants with 33 catches for 284 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 8.6 yards per reception. Seth Walder of ESPN even predicted before the season that Likely would finish as the team’s reception leader, and that call is holding up through the first five games of the 2026 campaign.
Likely’s biggest impact has shown up in the moments that matter most. A lot of his grabs have come on third down, where he’s become New York’s most trusted outlet. He also just turned in the best receiving game of his career on Sunday, piling up 11 catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns in the Giants’ tie with the Washington Commanders.
The fit in New York made sense from the start. The Giants brought him in as a dangerous pass-catching tight end and as a reliable safety valve for Jaxson Dart, who is now Jameis Winston, while the team waited to see how long it would take Malik Nabers to recover from the torn ACL he suffered early last year.
Instead, Nabers has come back looking like the player from his historic rookie season, and now the Giants have two high-end pass catchers giving defenses problems. Even after Dart suffered a season-ending knee injury, Likely has stayed productive with Winston running the offense.
He’s on pace to lead the Giants in receptions in his first year with the franchise. And if Nabers keeps getting 20 targets a game, or keeps complaining when he doesn’t, the receiver could eventually jump him. Either way, both players are capable of handling primary roles in the offense, which is exactly the kind of problem the Giants have been missing in recent years.
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