Make or break year: Can Jalin Hyatt become a weapon on offense for Giants?

The speedy wide-out could be on the roster bubble

The New York Giants were one of the true surprises to come out of the 2022 season. They were resilient and flexible, hanging tough late in games and adapting to exploit their opponents’ tendencies.

However, their games against better defenses revealed a flaw in their offense: They simply didn’t have the the speed to force opponents to defend every blade of grass. That allowed them to play downhill and choke out the quick-game concepts that had formed the foundation of their offense.

So, the Giants selected wide receiver Jalin Hyatt out of Tennessee in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Hyatt was widely regarded as a steal at 73rd overall. While there were concerns regarding his slight frame, his raw speed and big play ability seemed to be the answer the Giants’ were looking for.

Two years later, Hyatt has yet to emerge as the explosive threat the Giants envisioned him being. Instead, he took a step backward in every metric as a sophomore, making 2025 a pivotal year. Can he become the threat the Giants envisioned, or is he destined to be come a “former Giant”?

Why he can make it

We can, and will, talk about Hyatt’s speed and ball skills. But the first thing I want to call attention to is his competitive toughness.

Hyatt isn’t a particularly physical, or physically imposing, receiver. However, he’s a willing blocker and quick to transition from receiver to blocker to help out his teammates. He doesn’t seem to hesitate to get his hands dirty when he’s on the play side. Likewise, Hyatt was frequently used as an element of route concepts but was outside of the progression. Rather than an a receiving option, his routes were often designed to clear out defenders or serve as misdirection to make defenders hesitate.

But despite the fact that he wasn’t going to get the ball, he still played hard and ran his routes convincingly.

Those are small things that never show up on highlight reels, but become apparent when you watch enough tape.

For instance, watch Hyatt on this play from the end of the Giants’ season-opening blowout against the Minnesota Vikings.

It’s ultimately a sack of Daniel Jones for a 7-yard loss, but Hyatt is working exceptionally hard to get open in the scramble drill when the play breaks down.

(Hyatt is at the top of the screen, the outside receiver on the offensive right.)

Where other players stop to watch Jones get sacked, Hyatt keeps running and working to get open. That kind of competitiveness has value, even if it goes unnoticed in the moment.

Moving on, we do need to talk about Hyatt’s speed and ability to get open, even if he wasn’t targeted.

Here we see Hyatt as an outside receiver, this time across from Darius Slayton against the Seattle Seahawks.

He’s at the top of the screen, on the offensive left, and matched up against Seahawks cornerback Riq in man coverage. Hyatt gets a free release and quickly gains separation from Woolen and has nothing but green grass in front of him. The result of the play is ultimately a 41-yard completion to Slayton on the opposite sideline, however it could have been an even bigger play given the separation Hyatt generated and the fact that the Seahawks’ post-snap coverage rotation left the free safety shaded to the offensive right.

Beyond that, it’s notable that Hyatt beat Riq Woolen and seemed ready to pull away. Woolen is one of the fastest corners in the NFL, with a fairly ridiculous 4.26-second 40 yard dash at 205 pounds. Yet despite that speed, Hyatt was able to begin to pull away once he lengthened his stride.

Hyatt’s speed also allowed him to find voids in zone coverage, eating up cushions and forcing defenders to commit before they were ready. Despite that, his longest catch of the year was just 19 yards, though he showed promising route running and ball skills in the process.

Hyatt does a great job of getting the cornerback turned around with a fake just before his break. He’s also able to quickly locate the ball and makes a good adjustment to haul in the high pass.

Why he might not

There are two primary obstacles in Hyatt’s way. The first is opportunity, and the second is his build.

One of the most notable, and frustrating, aspects of his tape was how often Hyatt was open, while infrequently being targeted.

Take this play for instance, and I’ll just show a still to illustrate my point:

It was a flea-flicker, and the play-fake created a massive void in the deep-middle area of the field. But rather than deliver the deep pass to Hyatt (red circle) as he entered the void, Jones held the ball until he was forced to get it to Theo Johnson (yellow circle) for a short gain near the line of scrimmage.

Part of the issue is that Hyatt was often used as a deep threat. However, the Giants seldom threw deep over the last two years and Darius Slayton was the usual target when they did.

The other issue is Hyatt’s build. His speed and ball skills suggest an outside receiver, however his frame can make consistency on the outside difficult. He has good competitive toughness, but struggles to beat press-man coverage. Slightly built receivers absolutely can win against physical coverage, however their technique needs to be pristine to do so. They need to combine efficient hand usage with quick and precise footwork, and Hyatt isn’t there yet. And it’s fair to wonder if he ever will be.

Hyatt is, to a certain extent, a miniature version of D.K. Metcalf. He features blazing speed and good ball tracking down the field, but is a very linear athlete. Hyatt is more agile than Metcalf, but he doesn’t have anything like the quickness and agility we usually see from players with his build.

Final thoughts

Can Jalin Hyatt make it and become a weapon for the Giants this year?

In my estimation… Absolutely.

All the traits that made him an exciting prospect are still readily apparent in his game. He’s tough, has good ball skills, is a better route runner than he gets credit for, and has (potentially) game-changing speed.

Whether he will make it is another question, with a complicated answer.

Part of Hyatt’s future is firmly in his control. He needs to continue to work on his technique and the mental aspect of his game as a receiver. How he uses his hands and the precision with which he runs his routes are areas of improvement. Improving those should lead to greater consistency, and from there to more faith from the coaches and his quarterback.

Hyatt may always need to be “protected” by play design, however there are ways to keep defenders from getting their hands on him early in the play. It may be that he’s a situational receiver much like Mario Manningham was for earlier Giants teams.

The other part of his fate is out of his control.

Daniel Jones’ rapport with Slayton was well known and widely observed. So when they were both on the field and the play called for a deep pass, Jones naturally looked to the receiver with whom he always had good chemistry.

Whether or not Hyatt is able to make enough of an impact to remain a Giant beyond 2025 — or even training camp — could come down to whether or not he “clicks” with any of their new quarterbacks.

On that front, Russell Wilson did call out Hyatt as a player he’s looking forward to working with.

Wilson said at his introductory press conference, “I talked to Jalin Hyatt today a little bit, too. I just think he’s a guy that’s been untapped in terms of what he knows he’s capable of.”

Wilson was able to create fireworks with Metcalf, and a connection with Hyatt could yield the same for the Giants. It could also go a long way toward determining if Hyatt “makes it”, washes out, or perhaps even breaks out this year.