{"id":375345,"date":"2026-10-17T01:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375345\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T01:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:12:24","slug":"isaiah-likely-emerging-as-giants-star-after-years-in-mark-andrews-shadow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375345\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Likely emerging as Giants star after years in Mark Andrews’ shadow"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Harbaugh pours over hundreds of hours of college football tape every spring \u2014 more than most NFL head coaches \u2014 but Isaiah Likely\u2019s highlights at Coastal Carolina stick in his brain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was being evaluated \u2014 he went in the late fourth round \u2014 nobody really could get their arms around him,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cHe made all these plays in college, but it just looked different. In college, he also was crazy good as a perimeter blocker. He would launch guys through the air \u2014 like 5 yards through the air sometimes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harbaugh and Likely are first-year Giants but fifth-year partners after four with the Ravens, where Likely was stuck behind Pro Bowler Mark Andrews on the depth chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Ravens made their choice between them by re-signing Andrews to a three-year, $39.3 million extension<\/a> last December \u2014 all but guaranteeing Likely\u2019s free agent departure (three years, $40 million<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that when teams focaled [Andrews] in as the guy, how did he attack every day differently?\u201d Likely said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s easier when your team is scheming you up wide-open looks, but when the defense is actually honing you in and knowing that, \u2018We have to stop that guy, how do you take the next step to be in that type of schematic?\u2019 And that was something that Mark taught me, whether it was watching film or at practice. And now I feel like once I got it, I was good with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Giants\u2019 Isaiah Likely (9) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the third quarter of an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

So far, so good, indeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Harbaugh\u2019s inside knowledge, were the Giants right in thinking that Likely was an elite tight end in hiding? Likely\u2019s 33 catches rank No. 2 in the NFL among tight ends and are only nine shy of his single-season career high.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five games into his tenure, Likely already is the first Giants veteran free agent addition with multiple games of two or more touchdown catches at any point in his contract since Plaxico Burress in 2005. All the other players to do so in between were acquired through the draft or undrafted rookie signings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[In] college, you\u2019re put in situations usually in a system where if you\u2019re the guy they \u2026 try to make you win [your route] as much as possible,\u201d Likely said. \u201cAnd when you get to the league, it\u2019s more about disguising defenses and really just watching a lot of film.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More credit to Andrews\u2019 mentorship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to incorporate that in my game to now where I\u2019m seeing the field like a quarterback, where I can see spot drops and where I can just feel spaces,\u201d Likely said. \u201cAnd when you have a quarterback that sees the same way as you or talks about it the same way as you, that\u2019s when it\u2019s just night and day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BaltimoreBaltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews (89) celebrates his touchdown during the first half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans in Baltimore, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. AP Photo\/Nick Wass<\/p>\n

Unlike teams that split their two best pass catchers on the perimeter, the Giants\u2019 complement of Likely draws safety attention away from Malik Nabers. Likely has run a career-high 77.2 percent of his routes from the slot \u2014 only the Bengals\u2019 Mike Gesicki is in the slot more among tight ends \u2014 where 195 of his 284 yards have come from, per NextGenStats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Leek since the day I got here, \u2018My job is to make sure no team is able to double cover you,\u2019 \u201d Likely said. \u201cAnd I feel like it\u2019s insulting if I see a team that would rather double-cover Leek and leave everybody one-on-one than having everybody else get their one. If I\u2019m doing that, that means [Nabers is] going for 100-plus [yards] every game because there\u2019s not a corner, I feel like, in the league that could just stay with him one-on-one all day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Tight ends coach Tim Kelly \u2014 a former NFL offensive coordinator \u2014 watched every play of Likely\u2019s from the Ravens before free agency even though the head coach\u2019s stamp of approval was already involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw the stuff that you are seeing now \u2014 his ability to make plays, his ability to block in space and put his face on people in the run game,\u201d Kelly told The Post. \u201cThat\u2019s why he\u2019s here. He was behind a great player, but it was intriguing to think, \u2018What can he do with more opportunities? His ability to catch the ball away from the framework of his body and his body control, he\u2019s got a lot of cool traits that show up consistently whether it\u2019s a Wednesday or a Sunday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One thing that the Giants don\u2019t like is calling him a \u201creceiving tight end.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not just a receiver,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cAre his blocks going to look similar to Theo Johnson\u2019s or Chris Manhertz\u2019s or Pat Ricard\u2019s? No, but they all have a unique skill set. It\u2019s his attention to detail and incredible instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh pours over hundreds of hours of college football tape every spring \u2014 more than most NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,65450,34377,31844,9,2683,11,10,22,319],"class_list":["post-375345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-isaiah-likely","tag-john-harbaugh","tag-mark-andrews","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}