Isaiah Likely Signing: What the TE Deal Means for Giants Moving Forward

Former Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely is reportedly joining the Giants on a three-year deal. | Peter Casey-Imagn Images

The Giants are signing former Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely to a three-year, $40 million deal, Albert Breer reported Monday afternoon.

The deal has upside that can push it to $47.5 million, Breer added.

Likely will be reunited with former coach John Harbaugh in New York, where he’ll join 25-year-old Theo Johnson, among others, in the Giants’ tight end room.

Once considered Mark Andrews’s heir, Likely arrives in East Rutherford expected to make an immediate impact alongside new quarterback Jaxson Dart, who shares a similar dual-threat ability with Likely’s ex-quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Likely was a fourth-round pick by the Ravens in 2022 and gradually grew into one of Jackson’s more reliable targets, starting roughly half of all the games he played in the last three years. In 2025, Likely recorded 27 catches for 307 yards and just one touchdown, all career lows in part due to injuries and inconsistent quarterback play.

With Andrews serving as the clear TE1 in Baltimore after signing a multi-year extension in December ‘25, Likely was set to hit the open market and quickly found a new home with a familiar face at the helm.

Here’s what the Likely deal means for the Giants in 2026 and beyond.

Isaiah Likely signing: What Giants TE depth chart looks like in 2026

Likely ranked as one of the most valuable free agent tight ends in 2026, despite coming off a down year.

The 25-year-old has played in 63 games across his four-year Ravens tenure and has proven he can be an efficient starter; he filled in as Baltimore’s starting tight end for six games in 2024 when Andrews was injured and finished with 322 receiving yards and five touchdown catches. There’s no question about his pass-catching abilities, as Likely has racked up 740 yards after the catch in four years, and his 15 total touchdowns are second-most by a Ravens player since 2022.

What does beg the question is whether Likely will split tight end duties with Johnson in 2026, as he did with Andrews last season.

Last year, Johnson also split time with Daniel Bellinger before Johnson arguably emerged as Dart’s preferred, though somewhat inconsistent, target. The Penn State product finished with a career-best 45 catches for 528 yards and five touchdowns in his Year 2 and appeared on track to becoming the Giants’ TE1—until New York brought in Likely this March.

Likely and Johnson may *likely* split reps as the two most talented pass-catching tight ends on the Giants, though we’d suspect Likely’s history with Harbaugh would give him an advantage. Both are big-bodied tight ends who could prove to be valuable secondary and tertiary options behind recovering star wideout Malik Nabers for the foreseeable future.

With the Giants re-signing Chris Manhertz for his blocking abilities, Bellinger—who’s a free agent—could be on the outs. That still leaves Likely and Johnson battling for TE1 duties, though, and Giants fans might have to wait until training camp to see how the tight end competition plays out.

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