Isaiah Likely — Week 2: Ten Targets, Thirty-Three Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Tuesday, Sep 22
Likely led the Giants with 10 targets, 31 percent of the team's throws, and caught five for 33 yards with a longest of 13 — a week after catching all eight of his targets for 78 yards and two touchdowns. Seven of the 10 came after halftime and four of those fell incomplete, including back-to-back throws from the New York five to open the fourth quarter, in a 28–6 loss to the Rams.
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Three to 14, 12 37 left in the third quarter, second and nine at the New York 21. Jameis Winston threw short left to Isaiah Likely for 13 yards and a first down. +1.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and +2.5 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. There was an illegal contact flag on the Rams that New York declined, and it was the best play of Likely's night.
The line: 10 targets, five catches, 33 yards, three first downs, no touchdowns, −0.4 expected points on the targets, and a longest of 13. The catches went four, five, 13, six and five. Three targets before halftime, seven after. One third-down target, caught and converted — four yards from Jaxson Dart on third and three with 13 27 left in the first quarter, which was the only ball Dart completed to him before leaving the game. The five incompletions: a short middle on second and 19 in the first quarter, a short right and a short left on the same possession in the third, and then the two that opened the fourth, first and 10 and second and 10 at the New York five, one thrown short right and one short middle, four seconds of game clock apart.
10 targets led the team and were 31 percent of the 32 Giants throws. Malachi Fields had six, Theo Johnson, Cam Skattebo and Malik Nabers four each, Darnell Mooney three, Devin Singletary one. Two quarterbacks threw him the ball, one of them for a single snap.
Back in June the preview leaned overpriced on Likely: a 40-million-dollar contract and a price of the eleventh tight end for a job he had never held, a career high of 42 catches, and an identity the preview put at three to four targets a game across four seasons — a number the price asked to roughly double. Week One doubled it, eight for eight, 78 yards and two touchdowns. Week Two doubled it again in volume and produced almost nothing with it: 10 targets, five catches, 33 yards. 18 targets in two games is the preview's central doubt being answered on the volume side, in the direction of the buyer. The yards are now the open question, and two games will not close it. New York is home to the Titans on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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