To say Isaiah Hodgins has come out of nowhere for the New York Giants is, well, an understatement – but on a team such as Big Blue, it seems like he fits in perfectly with the aesthetic.
Hodgins was a sixth-round pick of the Bills in 2020, but missed that entire season with injury and spent most of 2021 on the practice squad, appearing only in Week 16 and playing just a handful of snaps. The 2022 season was much of the same, as he was on the practice squad for the first month, and finally made his first NFL catch in Week 5 – but he was waived on Nov. 1, cast aside after 2 ½ seasons, three games, and four catches in the league.
The receiver-bereft Giants claimed him off waivers, reuniting him with former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, and the rest, as they say, is history. Over eight games (and five starts) with Big Blue, Hodgins had 33 catches for 331 yards – totals that ended up fourth and third on the team, respectively – and had four touchdowns, all over the last five weeks.
And then came Sunday, when he led the Giants with eight catches for 105 yards and a touchdown in their not-so-upset win over the Vikings on Super Wild Card Weekend.
Yes, the Giants’ wide receiver position has been a quagmire all year, but to go from waiver-wire claim to arguably WR1 in two months’ time?
“It's a team effort. I know that is a cliché answer, but it really is,” Hodgins said of his rise and touchdown streak. “On offense, we need all the wide receivers to do their job, and make the correct routes, and reads. The quarterback and offensive line have got to do their job as well. It's a credit to the whole team. It's easy to point at me, but it is truly the whole team. I’m just happy to be part of the squad.”
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Hodgins’ best regular-season game also came against the Vikings, as he had eight grabs on 12 targets for 89 yards and a score on Christmas Eve – so he was confident that not only he, but the Giants as a whole, could have similar success Sunday.
“I feel like our confidence level is high every week. There is not a lot of people believing in us. We come in with that chip on our shoulder every week and try to go out there and prove people wrong,” he said. “This game, I think it's all about how the first game went. The couple of turnovers that the offense had and bad routes that I ran…there were plays we knew we could have executed better, and we let it slip away a bit. We went into this game knowing we can't hurt ourselves. We knew if we didn't do that we could come up on top.”
Hodgins has an NFL pedigree, as his father, James, was a fullback who spent eight seasons in the NFL from 1999-2006 (including his final one with the Jets) and won a Super Bowl with the Rams. Unlike his father, who was mostly an under-the-radar player, Isaiah was drafted, and has now exploded onto the scene as a threat in the passing game.
“He's done a great job for us. He's just a really good football player,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “He knows how to get open, and he made some huge plays for us. Yeah, he's done a great job.”
A great job that he can carry for at least one more week, thanks to his big performance Sunday.
“It just means a lot man. First playoff game to be able to go out there with my brothers and just execute like we did...we fought all the way to the end, man. It was fun,” Hodgins smiled. “The next one is the most important one. It's a divisional opponent that we are used to and have seen a couple of times. We have got to go out there, stay humble, and get ready to get another win.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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