Isaiah Likely didn’t need much time to make the Giants’ free-agent gamble look justified. In New York’s 28-20 season-opening win, the tight end caught all eight passes thrown his way, finished with 78 yards and two touchdowns, and had only one blemish: a first-quarter fumble that fullback Patrick Ricard recovered.
For a player the Giants signed to a three-year, $40 million deal, that kind of first impression matters. The team hoped Likely would become an offensive cornerstone after showing flashes in Baltimore, and his debut gave them exactly the kind of early return they were looking for.
It also sent the conversation back to Baltimore.
Likely’s performance added to the pressure on Mark Andrews, who opened the season with four catches for 49 yards and also dropped an easy pass on a 2nd-and-goal. Andrews is already coming off the worst season of his career, finishing with 422 receiving yards in 2025, and the Week 1 line did little to quiet the scrutiny around him.
The contrast is hard to miss. Likely walked into a new offense and immediately looked comfortable, while Andrews — the Ravens tight end who signed a three-year, $39.3 million extension last December — had a quieter day and a costly drop. One debut does not rewrite a season, but it does sharpen the questions Baltimore has to answer about its tight-end usage and how much it can still lean on Andrews alone.
The Ravens’ own recent history with Likely makes the comparison even more pointed. In Week 18 of the previous season, he made a remarkable catch in the final moments to set up a game-winning field goal attempt, a play that only added to the attention on Baltimore’s tight end room. Now he is doing it in a Giants uniform, and the ripple effect is immediate.
Likely’s next chance comes Sept. 21 against the Los Angeles Rams. For the Giants, it is another test of whether the opening-week burst was a one-game spike or the start of something bigger. For Baltimore, it is another week of watching a former tight end make the case that the conversation around Andrews is no longer theoretical.