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When the New York Giants suddenly found themselves thin at wide receiver in the middle of the season last year, general manager Joe Schoen brought Isaiah Hodgins over from the Buffalo Bills.
Hodgins made the most of his opportunity and as the season went on, his chemistry with Daniel Jones grew.
Hodgins was recently a guest on the ‘2nd Wind‘ podcast and talked about working with Jones, particularly praising his quarterback’s work ethic.
“I’m not going to lie, I definitely didn’t expect his work ethic to be what it was,” Hodgins said. “Like, usually, with quarterbacks — they’re top guys but they’re not like the hardest workers. DJ is definitely up there. He’s always grinding, doing whatever he can to take care of his body, lift. He’ll be in the weight room power cleaning crazy weights, 275-whatever, doing all this middle of the season. Like, first one in there at 5:30, 5:45 — I sort of have to push myself like, ‘okay, I’m going to get here before him. Like, I’ve got to wake up at 5:30 and get here’ because I just see that and it inspires me.”
That inspiration has led to an improving trust and a growing chemistry.
“I think the chemistry part, it came with how often we worked in between periods and in between practices and after practice. He does that with all the guys,” Hodgins said. “He’s so critical and technical about himself that he’s like, ‘Yo, come over here. I need to work on this throw, let’s run this route’ and if he makes a bad throw, he’s like, ‘Can you run it for me one more time? my bad.’ And I’m like, ‘this is my third deep route, I can’t keep going’ and he’s just like, ‘Come on, I’ve gotta get it right.’ Then, in the game, that’s how he’s able to put it on the money because he’s done that throw a thousand times.
“I’ve got high expectations for DJ, just because I’ve seen the work, man.”
Hodgins compared his grind and perseverance through the days of being a practice squad player and knowing eventually the hard work was going to pay off. He sees the same for Jones.
“That’s the same mindset,” Hodgins said. “I see DJ has. He works so hard and I just know, it paid off at the end of last year and I know this year, next few years to come, he’s going to show he really is a franchise quarterback.”
Hodgins’ praise of Jones is telling given his time with Josh Allen in Buffalo.
Clearly, there is chemistry and trust between Hodgins and Jones and that is likely to continue after their first full offseason together in Mike Kafka’s offense.
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