Isaiah Hodgins Opens Up About Return to Giants

Hodgins is glad to be back at the place where he's had most of his NFL success thus far.

New York Giants wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins | Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

New York Giants receiver Isaiah Hodgins is looking to make his mark on the team's offense in whatever way he’s needed, just like he did in the 2022 season when he was picked up off waivers midway through the season after being let go by the Buffalo Bills. 

The 27-year-old receiver came into New York and hit the ground running thanks to his familiarity with the team’s offense, as run by then head coach Brian Daboll, who had been the Bills' offensive coordinator during Hodgins’ tenure with the team.

In that 2022 season, Hodgins appeared in eight games with five starts and caught 33 out of 42 pass targets for 351 yards and four touchdowns, helping the Giants to make it to their first postseason berth since 2016.

He didn’t stop there. In the Giants’ postseason, which included a win over the Minnesota Vikings (their first postseason victory since 2011), Hodgins caught 9-of-11 pass targets for 108 yards and one touchdown, playing a big role in the Wild Card road victory against the Vikings. 

The following season, he played in 17 games with nine starts, catching 21 of 33 targets for 230 yards and three touchdowns. 

But then in 2024, his usage shrank to virtually nothing, with the receiver appearing in just three games and catching both of his targets for 12 yards before departing the team via free agency.

“I'm gonna try to do the same thing I did last time,” he said on Wednesday. “Just build off that momentum. So that's really controlling what I can.”

Hodgins, who is back with the Giants after an offseason stint with the 49ers and then a stop with the Steelers' practice squad, is certainly off to a good start. 

He stepped right into the Giants offense, now fully run by interim head coach Mike Kafka, and finished as the Giants' receiving leader (5-of-6) and receiving yards leader (57 yards) in Sunday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, just days after the Giants poached him from the Steelers' practice squad. 

“I'm just really proud of how he stepped up again for us,” Kafka said of the receiver. “He came in on a Thursday, off the plane, onto a practice, absorbed the installation on third-down day with a bunch of passes.”

Accomplishing all that in such a short period of time, according to Kafka, isn’t easy, but he knew Hodgins would be able to pull it off.

“For a guy like Isaiah, who's really smart, we knew that about him. That's one of the reasons why we brought him in,” Kafka said. 

“But I was very impressed with how he jumped in even on that short notice.”

It was all in a day’s work for Hodgins.

“If they tell me to go in there and run block plays and just do that, then cool, I gotta do that. You know, if they're like, ‘Hey, all red zone,’ cool. Gotta do that third down–whatever it is, um, I'm gonna try to do my part.

“Just really be thankful for the opportunity that I have here and just try to take advantage of it, you know, and I think people see that,” he added. 

“I don't try to think of myself too high or too low, or better than anybody. Wherever they throw me in, I'm gonna be humble and grateful for the opportunity and try to make the most of it.”

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