It wasn't exactly a shock when Isaiah Likely departed the Baltimore Ravens organization this offseason. It was even less of a shock when he reunited with John Harbaugh in New York and will now be wearing a blue and white Giants uniform in 2026.
Giants coaches who hadn't worked with Likely before are already impressed by what they're seeing from him. Giants tight ends coach Tim Kelly is stoked about what Likely is showing him this summer and is practically shouting it from the rooftops.
"[Likely] gets mad at me when I take him out [of the lineup]," Kelly said on the Giants Huddle podcast. "He wants to get every rep possible ... but really his ability to create separation and pluck the football is rare. ... He's able to elevate and play above the rim, and he's really natural at catching the football and getting open."
Giants are finding out what made Isaiah Likely special to Baltimore Ravens fans
Sigh.
While Ravens fans knew that the team wasn't going to keep both Likely and Mark Andrews after choosing to extend Andrews, it still hurts seeing him with another team. It hurts even more knowing that he's going to be a big-time contributor with his new team too.
It's never easy to say good-bye to a talented player and that's precisely the case here. Likely linked back up with Harbaugh and it made sense for him to do so and now he'll hope that he can pick up where he left off when he walked away from the Ravens' organization.
The good news is that, even with the reset the Ravens had this offseason in moving on from Harbaugh and hiring Jesse Minter, they still have a darn good offense ready to take the field in 2026. Andrews is going to be the starting tight end and that's a great situation to be in.
While Likely isn't the backup anymore, Baltimore has Durham Smythe filling in that role and added a pair of rookies in the draft in Matt Hibner and Josh Cuevas. Ravens fans know that Likely will probably thrive in New York and just have to hope that their new tight end additions can make them forget all about him.
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