Survey results: NY Giants fans expect Isaiah Likely to be an impact player

Tight end Isaiah Likely makes a catch against the Buffalo Bills. | Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

It was viewed as something of a surprise when the New York Giants didn't move to remake their roster in free agency. John Harbaugh believes that the Giants' existing roster is in a pretty good place and only needed a few additions to compete with anyone in the NFL.

The national media, on the other hand, disagrees and the general consensus seems to be that a six- or seven-win season would be a good step forward for the Giants in Harbaugh's first year.

If the Giants are going to surprise the national media and exceed their expected win total, which is currently set at 7.5 on FanDuel, they're going to need their veteran additions to have an impact.

So this week we asked you which of the Giants' biggest-name free agents will have the biggest impact for the Giants. The answer was, unsrurpisingly, tight end Isaiah Likely.

Chris' thoughts

Like I said, I fully expected Likely to come out on top in this poll. He'll likely (no pun intended) see the field more than the other three players, and have more tangible production than Reader or Ricard.

I could have included any of the myriad wide receivers, punter Jordan Stout, or linebacker Tremaine Edmunds in the poll. However, I do believe Likely will be a more consistent impact player than Mooney, Austin, Beckham, Smith-Schuster, or Berrios. Likewise, I don't think Edmunds will be an impact player if Reader isn't an effective defensive tackle.

That leaves punter Jordan Stout, who I thought seriously about including. After all, fans who remember Steve Weatherford constantly flipping the field in the second half of the NFC Championship against the San Francisco 49ers will understand how impactful great punting can be. That certainly would have made the poll more interesting.

However, I decided to make a bit of a point here with including Ar'Darius Washington over Stout.

Here's what I wrote in the original survey:

One of the dominos to fall in Harbaugh's arrival in New York was Washington's injury in the spring of 2025. He was coming off of a breakout season for the Ravens and looking to become one of the big names at the safety position in the NFL. Modern NFL defenses demand a talented STAR" to blur the lines between box safety, free safety, and slot corner, and allow the defense to be multiple without constantly shifting subpackages. The Ravens definitely noticed Washington's absence in 2025 and now the Giants hope he can once again be a multifaceted sparkplug for the defense.

The nature of defenses is changing right before our eyes. The Giants were one of the first teams to make heavy use of the big nickel" package with their three safety set back in 2011, and proved highly effective against the Patriots' 12-personnel package. It's cropped up several times with other teams over the last couple years, but 2025 was a watershed year. We saw players like Kyle Hamilton, Nick Emmanwori, Cooper DeJean, and Budda Baker change how their defenses are able to gameplan and attack offenses. It's no coincidence that we saw a very high number of safeties drafted highly this year, as more teams look for ways in which to combat modern offensive trends.

Having a nickel defender who can blur the lines between slot corner and box safety is an incredible advantage for defenses. It allows them to shift looks and alignments on the fly and effectively deal with the run or pass, from 11 or 12-personnel packages. STAR" is the Nick Saban terminology for the position, and I believe that we'll hear the term used far more frequently over the next year as defensive trends shift.

Dennard Wilson wants to run an aggressive match quarters defense that does a lot on the back end. Adding Washington to Dru Phillips gives Wilson more flexibility in designing coverage schemes, post-snap rotations, disguises, and pressures.

The fact that just 7% of fans listed him as potentially having the biggest impact, while he could be one of the defense's pivot players, suggests that he's a guy we should be keeping an eye on this summer.