Theo Johnson’s third season in New York no longer looks like a simple continuation of the breakout he put together in 2025. The Giants changed the board when they gave Isaiah Likely a three-year, $40 million deal that can climb to $47.5 million with incentives, and that kind of investment doesn’t come with a side order of patience. It shifts the pecking order.
Johnson had just put together the best season of his career. In 15 games, he caught 45 of 74 targets for 528 yards and five touchdowns, finishing as the Giants’ only tight end to top 300 receiving yards.
He also became one of Jaxson Dart’s most dependable options late in the year, especially when the field shrank. All five of his scores came in the red zone, where he looked like a natural finishing point for the offense.
The numbers from Year 2 were a real leap from where he started. As a 2024 fourth-round pick out of Penn State, Johnson managed 29 catches for 331 yards and one touchdown in 12 games.
That was the profile of a rookie learning the position. In 2025, the production changed fast: 11.7 yards per catch, 192 yards after the catch, and a much larger share of the passing game.
He looked like an ascending starter.
But the flaws stayed right there in the frame.
Johnson was charged with seven drops in 2025, and PFF says he has led all NFL tight ends in drops across his first two seasons combined. For a tight end whose value comes from volume, tough catches, and working the middle of the field, that is a problem that follows him everywhere.
The targets are coming. The clean finishes are not coming often enough.
Blocking hasn’t given him much of a cushion either. Among 42 tight ends with at least 260 blocking snaps last season, Johnson ranked 32nd, with a 51.0 run-block grade and a 41.0 pass-block grade from PFF.
In an offense that wants to pound the ball, that matters. If he isn’t separating himself as a blocker and he isn’t finishing consistently as a receiver, the role can only stretch so far.
That is where Likely comes in. He arrives on $20.5 million fully guaranteed and reunites with John Harbaugh, who coached him from 2022 through 2025.
His 2024 season - 42 catches, 477 yards, and six touchdowns - is exactly the kind of move-tight-end production the Giants paid for. He also gives Dart the seam threat the offense was missing.
The Giants’ message is pretty plain. Johnson earned real playing time in 2025, but the team just spent starter money at his position anyway.
That doesn’t erase him from the plan, and two-tight-end looks can keep both on the field. Still, the premium routes now belong to the player getting the bigger contract.
Johnson remains part of a tight end room that suddenly has real depth. His job now is simple to say and hard to do: clean up the drops, raise the blocking grade, and make sure the Giants can’t take him off the field.
The talent has shown up. Year 3 is about proving the rest of it can keep pace.
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