The Giants can clinch a playoff berth with a win over Nick Foles and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon. New York has been receiving contributions from some unexpected heroes over the past few weeks.
Particularly, Isaiah Hodgins has provided a nice little spark to the receiver room.
Prior to joining Big Blue, Hodgins was buried on the depth chart in Buffalo and had appeared in just two games. The 24-year old was waived by the Bills on Nov. 1.
It was then that General Manager Joe Schoen approached Brian Daboll.
Both Daboll and Schoen, of course, were part of the Bills organization when they drafted Hodgins out of Oregon State back in 2020. When he became available, both agreed ‘he’d be a good guy to bring in to help us.’
The Giants claimed Hodgins a day after he was let go, and the move has paid off significantly.
Hodgins has appeared in seven games with the Giants and he’s made 29 catches for 309 yards and three touchdowns. His biggest game to date came last week against the Vikings when he made a career-high eight catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
Hodgins’ chemistry with quarterback Daniel Jones seems to be growing by the week. He’s reached the end zone in three of the past four weeks, and he been targeted six or more times in each of those games.
While not many saw this breakout coming, Daboll certainly isn’t surprised to see the talented receiver settling in nicely with his new team.
“I haven’t been surprised by him,” the head coach said. “In the draft process, he was exactly what he were looking for in terms of smart, tough, dependable, very intelligent. He was a good player at Oregon State. And then he played behind some pretty good players, I would say, in Buffalo.”
Daboll added: “He kept a great attitude. He was on the practice squad, doing the things he needed to do to help the team. He knew our offense. He has a good skillset, and I’m glad we have him.
As far as Hodgins himself, he told the NY Post in a recent Q&A that through it all he’s never stopped believing in himself.
“Nobody thought even when I got picked up here that I’d be a major contributor or to be catching touchdown passes or like anything, but my support system that I have and just like my faith in God in just knowing that He had a plan for me and that regardless of what people said, that hard work was gonna show up, and I plan to keep on doing that.”