Tag: Jalin Hyatt

The New York Giants will host the Los Angeles Rams this Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in a game that will send the Rams to the postseason with a victory.

At the beginning of the season, however, the Giants were the team that everyone thought would be in the playoffs, not the Rams. Things don’t always work out according to plan, as we know.

The two teams made a draft day trade, with the Rams sending the Giants the 73rd overall selection (in Round 3) for the Giants’ third-rounder (No. 89) and a fourth-round pick (No. 128).

With that selection, the Giants took Tennessee wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, a speedster who was clocked at 24 MPH during training camp, the highest speed ever recorded by an NFL player.

The Rams took Wake Forest defensive lineman Kobie Turner at No. 89. Turner has had a productive rookie season with 6.5 sacks thus far.

At No. 128, Los Angeles took a flyer on Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett. He has been on the non-football illness list since the start of the season.

Hyatt, on the other hand, has had an up-and-down rookie campaign. He’s dressed for all of the Giants’ 15 games so far this year and has started six. He has just 19 receptions on 34 targets for a total of 343 yards. He leads the team with an 18.1 YPR average, yet the team appears to be apprehensive to turn him loose.

Hyatt is not discouraged about his disappointing rookie season. He realizes the Giants have had issues on the offensive side of the ball this year stemming from the revolving door at both quarterback can along the offensive line due to injuries.

“I’m learning the NFL and how things operate up here,” Hyatt told the New York Post.

“You can’t pout because you never know, next week it might be five targets for me, six targets, seven targets, and what if I’m not ready? If go out there not prepared because I was pouting all week and I do have those opportunities, I don’t come in with them.”

Hyatt has an upbeat attitude and feels his moment will come.

“I can’t control where the ball goes, the only thing I can focus on is myself and this team, just getting open, whatever one-on-one matchup I have or whoever is on me,” he said. “Just come in every day, keep preparing, keep doing the same routine I have weekly, and hopefully, things can change.”

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Following their surprising success in 2022, the New York Giants had high hopes coming into this year after improving the roster during the offseason.

General manager Joe Schoen beefed up the team’s personnel through both free agency and the NFL draft, including their third-round pick Jalin Hyatt.

Plenty of mock drafts had Hyatt projected to go late in the first round. Instead, he fell to the Giants in the third round where Schoen saw an opportunity to trade up and snag the University of Tennessee receiver.

Through 15 weeks, the Giants aren’t exactly where they want to be (5-8) but are riding a three-game winning streak and Hyatt believes the right people are in place.

“Even though the record doesn’t speak for what we want, I still think we have a good team,” Hyatt told Giants Wire prior to their Week 14 victory. “We have the right guys in the room. We just can’t beat ourselves and that’s really what it’s been this whole season, beating ourselves.

“Once we get away from that and we start playing as a confident unit and confident offense. . . we know (what) we can do. Not only that, but have our guys back healthy. Hopefully, we will change the script. We’re still focused on the now. We still have our playoff hopes and we’re still going to go out there and do what we have to do, so we’re going to continue to get better.”

Injuries were a big reason for the Giants’ lack of success earlier this season and it’s still causing issues at 5-8.

The Giants still have a shot at the postseason as crazy as that may seem given the fact that they currently hold a high draft pick. But as Hyatt alludes, continuing success means not beating themselves, which is something they’ve avoided in recent weeks.

Ideally, that trend will continue as Hyatt improves on a day-by-day basis, potentially helping to lead the Giants back to the playoffs.

Even if Big Blue falls short of that, Hyatt has faith that the right people are in the building down in East Rutherford.

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