Isaiah Likely’s start has turned into one of the biggest reasons the Giants look dangerous early, and the numbers are starting to get silly.
Through the first six games, the tight end has 39 catches for 393 yards and five touchdowns, and he’s doing it regardless of who’s throwing him the ball. Against the Texans on Sunday, he’ll carry the kind of production that makes him look less like a nice addition and more like a true centerpiece in Matt Nagy’s offense.
The raw totals are already eye-catching. Likely’s 393 receiving yards lead all tight ends, and his current pace over a 17-game season would put him at 111 catches, 1,085 yards and 14 touchdowns. Those projections would shove him right into the middle of the Giants’ record book conversation, with 109 catches by Malik Nabers in 2024 standing as the team mark for receptions, Victor Cruz’s 1,536 receiving yards in 2011 holding the overall yardage record, and Odell Beckham Jr.’s 13 touchdowns in 2015 sitting as the team’s single-season high.
At tight end, the bar is lower, but still not exactly easy to clear. Jeremy Shockey’s 74 catches in 2002 are the Giants’ best at the position, Mark Bavaro owns the yardage mark at 1,001 from 1986, and Aaron Thomas’ nine touchdowns in 1967 is the number Likely is chasing on his current path.
The pace is so strong that even people who liked Likely in the preseason probably didn’t picture this version of the story. He was already viewed as a promising piece, and a 60-catch, 600-yard season would have qualified as a win. Instead, the fifth-year tight end is tracking well beyond that and giving the Giants something they desperately need: a dependable pass-catching threat.
That matters even more because he’s not doing it alone. Giants fans can look at the current setup and see two legitimate targets around Jaxson Dart moving forward, which changes the feel of the offense.
Likely’s production also has him in the All-Pro conversation. Arizona’s Trey McBride earned first-team All-Pro honors last year after piling up 126 catches, 1,239 yards and 11 touchdowns, and the Giants tight end has put himself into that same lane. The race, though, could come down to how voters weigh team success, especially with the Giants sitting at 3-2-1 and just one win away from matching last season’s four victories.
The names he’s chasing are formidable. McBride is at 49 catches, 361 yards and three touchdowns, while the Raiders’ Brock Bowers has 28 catches, 382 yards and three touchdowns. Likely is on pace to finish with the most touchdowns, and the receiving-yardage battle is still very much open.
For Giants history, the All-Pro angle is rare air. Tiki Barber in 2005 was the last Giants skill player to make AP first-team All-Pro, and Bavaro and Shockey are the only tight ends to do it for the franchise.
And one more nugget that says plenty about how much Likely has moved the needle: he has more catches and receiving yards than Wan’Dale Robinson and Daniel Bellinger combined.
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That uncertainty has opened the door to outside chatter about whether the Giants need to keep looking before the trade deadline. Connor Hughes raised the possibility that New York could explore adding another primary runner, a sign that the team may be viewing Skattebo more as part of the solution than the centerpiece of it. For a team trying to protect its place in the division, the next move at running back could say plenty about how aggressively it wants to lean into the moment. [Read more 🡒]
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Through Week 6, Robinson has 25 catches for 198 yards and two touchdowns while playing 67 percent of the offensive snaps, but his production has come with a shorter catch window and less impact after the grab. His yards per reception has dropped to 7.9, and his drop rate has climbed to a career-high 8.1 percent, a reminder that the Giants may have been more comfortable than it first appeared when they chose a different direction. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Suddenly Have A Real Kayvon Thibodeaux Decision
Kayvon Thibodeauxs spot with the Giants has quietly gone from assumed to uncertain. He is now working as a backup edge rusher while playing on his fifth-year option without a contract extension, and the team has already explored the idea of trading him without actually pulling the trigger. Depth has been the biggest reason to hold off, because New York could not afford to thin out a pass-rushing group that still needs bodies.
Trace Fords emergence changes that calculation. The undrafted edge rusher has started to look like a real part of the rotation, giving the Giants a little more flexibility than they had before and making a midseason move on Thibodeaux more plausible than it seemed earlier. If Ford can keep showing he belongs, New York may soon have to decide whether keeping Thibodeaux for the stretch run is worth more than recouping a draft pick while his value is still intact. [Read more 🡒]