Just when it looked like Theo Johnson might be about to take off with the New York Giants’ starting tight end job entering Year 3, the front office went out and made sure things wouldn’t be that simple.
The Giants opened free agency with a bang by signing former Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely to a three-year, $40 million deal.
And while the move immediately gives second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart another big weapon in the passing game, it also quietly throws a wrench into what many thought would be Johnson’s natural next step as the Giants’ TE1.
Isaiah Likely signing reshapes Giants' tight end hierarchy
Johnson was one of the few bright spots in the Giants’ offense last season. The 2024 fourth-round pick showed flashes of becoming a reliable middle-of-the-field target and looked like a player ready to take on a bigger role heading into 2026.
Now things look a little different.
Likely isn’t arriving in East Rutherford to be a complementary piece. Not at that price point. He’s one of the more versatile tight ends in the league, and someone new head coach John Harbaugh already knows extremely well from their four years together in Baltimore. The G-Men didn’t commit that kind of money unless they expected him to be heavily involved in everything.
That doesn’t mean Johnson suddenly disappears from the offense, though. If anything, the move probably says more about what Harbaugh wants the offense to look like moving forward. His teams have always leaned on using multiple tight ends, and pairing Johnson’s size with Likely’s versatility and athleticism could give Big Blue a much more dynamic look offensively.
From a roster standpoint, it also creates a pretty intriguing dynamic for Dart. Young quarterbacks tend to thrive when they have big-bodied targets they can rely on over the middle, and the Giants now have two of them.
Johnson’s path to becoming the clear-cut top tight end in the offense just got a lot more complicated. But if the Giants use both players the way Harbaugh historically has, the result might actually be a better offense overall.
Either way, the message from this signing is pretty clear. The Giants didn’t want to wait around and hope Johnson took the next step. They went out and made sure the group enters 2026 all gas, no breaks.