Giants WR Jalin Hyatt Confident in Team's Potential This Season

Hyatt thinks the sky's the limit for the 2024 Giants.

New York Giants wide receiver Jalin Hyatt / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

New York Giants wide receiver Jalin Hyatt feels pretty confident about himself and the team's chances of being relevant in the coming year.

"New year, new opportunities, new goals,” he said Thursday following the team’s ninth OTA. “You know, for me, I always set high expectations. Just looking at our team and what we got, we have a good chance to do whatever we want to do.," he said.

The team wants to do what every other NFL team sets its sights on: getting to the playoffs. But while many people think that might be a tall order for a Giants team coming off a 6-11 season that still has some question marks, Hyatt feels otherwise.  

"We have a playoff team, and that's what we want to do, and that's our focus,” he said, adding, “We're going to get there."

Hyatt, who last year aspired to win Rookie of the Year, fell way short of that goal when he finished third on the team in pass targets, with 40 of which he only caught 23 passes for a 57.5 reception percentage. He was with a minimum of 25 pass targets.

To ensure he’s more productive in his second season, Hyatt spent the off-season working to add muscle and fine-tune his game while working with receivers coach Delfonte Diamond in Houston, a goal of his to get bigger and stronger.

"That was one of the things I wanted to improve on,” Hyatt said of his desire to add muscle. “Talking to (head) coach (Brian Daboll) Dabs and (receivers) Coach (Mike) Groh, just getting bigger. Playing on the outside, you're going to get more press coverage and more body-to-body catches.

"So just getting bigger, getting strong with my catch point, getting stronger with my hands, and so far everything is working so far."

Head coach Brian Daboll has definitely taken notice of Hyatt's improvement.

"Yeah, there’s a lot to learn as a rookie, so he was trying to pick up how we do things here, the playbook.

"I would say this off-season in terms of breaking the huddle, getting aligned, knowing what to do, I think he's made a tremendous improvement in that area," Daboll said.

"You can tell he's been in the system for a year. He's playing with some confidence in terms of the pre-snap stuff which allows him to play faster post-snap. So he's done a good job. He's improved from year one to year two. Pleased with where he is at."

The Giants have what appears on paper at least to be a vastly improved receiver corps starring first-round draft pick Malik Nabers, who put on quite the show at the team’s ninth OTA. There are also returnees Darius Slayton, Wan’Dale Robinson, Isaiah Hodgins, and newcomer Allen Robinson II, a cast that Hyatt is very bullish about. 

"It's a lot of excitement," Hyatt said of the receiver group. "I think our receiver room is stacked and ready to prove what we can do."

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