Isaiah Likely followed John Harbaugh to New York, and if it wasn’t already obvious why, it is now.
The de jure tight end and de facto wide receiver was Jaxson Dart’s favorite target not named Malik Nabers in the Giants’ Week 1, 28-20 win against the Cowboys, causing problems all night for a Dallas secondary that never seemed to get its legs under itself.
Likely, who signed a three-year, $40 million deal to go from the Ravens to the Giants, figured to have a strong role on a team whose receiver depth looks suspect behind Nabers. It is much less suspect if Likely is as big a part of the equation as he looked Sunday, when he caught all eight of his targets, scored twice and finished with 78 receiving yards.
On one of the happier nights in the franchise’s recent memory, a first win of the John Harbaugh era steeped in symbolism, Likely was as important a cog in the machine as anyone other than Dart or Harbaugh.
As was expected, Theo Johnson and Chris Manhertz largely handled the blocking duties, and the Giants regularly operated out of two-back and two-tight end sets. That freed up Likely — who has a receiver’s build and a receiver’s skill set — to operate as one.
He was on the other end of what might have been Dart’s best throw of the night, a perfectly placed out route for 19 yards on a second-quarter drive that ended in Tyrone Tracy Jr.’s fumble.
He was on the other end of the throw that ended Dart’s best drive, getting wide open in the end zone corner to complete a drive that went 55 yards in six plays to end the first half with his first touchdown of the season.
And on the other side of the half, Dart looked for him in the red zone again to finish a 12-play drive in which Likely’s second touchdown of the night handed the Giants a 21-7 lead.
When that lead was most under threat, the Giants needing to extend a drive late in the fourth quarter to keep Dallas from getting the ball back down by eight, Dart went to Likely on third-and-9 and then a second time on third-and-3.
A year ago, Likely caught 27 passes in Baltimore and after one game here, you would back him to better that total, by a lot.
A year ago, he had one touchdown in Baltimore. He has already doubled that total.
At the moment, he appears to be the security blanket for a quarterback in Dart who operated with command and confidence. That is not a bad place to be.
