The New York Giants have quite a number of players on their roster who could ‘break out’ in 2023. In fact, with all the new faces and young players on the roster, it’s very likely they will have more than one.
In a piece by CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin predicting the breakout player for each team for the upcoming season, wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins was chosen as the player for the Giants.
New York brought in Darren Waller to give Daniel Jones a better option in the passing game. But Waller has played just 20 of 34 possible games over the past two seasons. What if he can’t be counted on to stay healthy anymore? In that case, Hodgins looks like the best game in town. He brought in 33 receptions for 351 yards and four scores in just eight games with the Giants last season. Extrapolate that to 17 games and it’s a 70-746-8.5 receiving line. For a former sixth-round pick who was waived in the middle of last season after mostly being on the practice squad prior to that, it would be a heck of a come-up.
Rubin makes some salient points in favor of Hodgins, who many thought was last year’s breakout player even in the small sample size that they saw.
Hodgins is undoubtedly in the plans, but he’ll have to compete for touches in a very crowded field, with the Giants having a lot of mouths to feed on offense now.
They will be looking to stretch the field with the likes of speedster wide receivers Jalin Hyatt and Parris Campbell, as well as try to put the ball into the hands of their higher-paid players, such as tight end Darren Waller and running back Saquon Barkley.
There’s also veteran wideouts Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton, two Jones favorites.
