Another day, another big move made by the New York Giants offense. But at least this one involved a familiar face coming back to the Giants.
New York claimed wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins off the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad and added him to its active roster, leaving him open to potentially play in Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Hodgins, who turned 27 on Oct. 21, spent the past three seasons with the Giants, amassing 56 catches for 593 yards and seven touchdowns. The Giants brought him over from the Buffalo Bills, where Hodgins was selected in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
He has not played a snap of regular-season action in 2025, first being cut by the San Francisco 49ers when they set their final roster in August then spending the past 10 weeks on the practice squad in Pittsburgh.
The Giants (2-8), of course, have dropped three straight games and fired coach Brian Daboll on Monday. Interim coach Mike Kafka named Jameis Winston the starter against the Packers, since rookie Jaxson Dart is likely to miss the game after sustaining a concussion against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Isaiah Hodgins Is Likely To Suit Up Against Green Bay on Sunday
The Giants have four wide receivers on injured reserve, including the season-ending knee injury to 2024 first-round pick Malik Nabers. Plus, Darius Slayton, one of the team’s few bright spots on the outside, is questionable with a hamstring injury and did not practice Wednesday.
If Slayton couldn’t go, it would leave New York with just four healthy wideouts, after Lil’Jordan Humphrey was claimed off the Giants practice squad by the Denver Broncos on Wednesday.
The Giants are likely to elevate a player from their practice squad, like Ray-Ray McCloud or Ihmir Smith-Marsette, to also suit up on the outside. But bringing in a physical, 6-3, 201-pound wideout who knows the playbook and can step right in makes a lot of sense, even if he does not have a rapport with either Dart or Winston.
The Giants Are Going To Be Tough To Watch The Rest of the Season
We all knew the 2025 season was going to be tough, since the Giants had the toughest strength of schedule of any team in the league — and of course were 3-14 and earned the No. 3 pick last year.
But with the season-ending injuries to Nabers, and exciting fourth-round-drafted running back Cam Skattebo, plus the team’s obligation to treat Dart’s first professional concussion responsibly, a lot of the juice has been zapped out of what was looking like a fun and entertaining year — even though the losses were piling up.
Plus, New York’s defense hasn’t resembled the unit that was supposed to keep it in games, even despite Brian Burns‘ All-Pro-caliber year. Burns has more sacks (11) than the rest of the team combined (10), and the vaunted Giants defensive line has not lived up to expectations.
So even though signing Hodgins makes sense to fill out the Giants’ active roster for the game against the NFC’s final playoff team, you could forgive fans for not being super-inspired about the move.
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