Jalin Hiatt smiled, knowing that his answer didn't mean much to anyone but himself.
How much damage has this season done to his confidence?
“It's crazy, but it's growing,” Hiatt told the Post. “I'm the most confident guy in myself. The receivers believe in me, the coaches believe in me, but I definitely believe in myself. That's why what happened at the beginning of the season… It was tough for me to get through. I just had to accept it and keep getting better. But I still have absolute confidence in the world.”
He will have many reasons to disagree.
Hyatt has seven catches for 53 yards and no touchdowns this season, his second since the Giants traded him up in the third round of the draft.
He's barely been able to get on the field, playing just 36% of the snaps on offense.
After the first two games of the year, he denied reports that he shouted during a training camp practice in August that the team should trade him.
As a rookie, he showed some flashes as a speedy downfield threat, recording 23 catches for 373 yards while playing 51 percent of the snaps on offense.
But the arrival of Malik Nabors and the return of Wan'Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton pushed Hyatt into near-forgotten territory.
He has done little with the few opportunities he has had.
As it looks like we're heading into what would otherwise be a lost season, Hyatt said he believes at least one valuable lesson can be learned.
“Be ready, I think that was the biggest thing for me,” Hyatt said. “when [Slayton] I had a dip at the beginning of the season a few weeks ago and I didn't feel ready to go into that game and do what I needed to do. And I told myself that it would never happen again. ”
Slayton suffered a concussion in the Giants' loss to the Commanders in Week 9.
Hyatt played four snaps but was not targeted.
But a week later, in the Giants' Week 10 game against the Panthers in Germany, he made four catches (three of which came on his team's game-tying drive to send overtime) for 39. He gained yards and had his best game of the year.
Although slight, it is probably a sign of growth.
Has he changed something?
“I'm going to watch more movies,” Hyatt said. “I’m just studying the players that are actually playing, looking at their weaknesses, looking at their strengths and trying to attack their weaknesses.
“Staying in the weight room. Last year, I didn't spend as much time in the weight room. This year, that was one of the biggest changes I wanted to make, to play more physical and come off the line. Not only that, but I'm also able to make competitive catches. That's something I want to continue doing. It's all about opportunities.”
Nabers missed Friday's practice with a hip flexor injury and is doubtful for Sunday's game against the Saints.
If he is unable to play, it would be another opportunity for Hyatt to increase his playing time.
The winner of the 2022 Biletnikoff Award (awarded to the university's top recipient), during his time at the University of Tennessee, concerns that Hyatt was one-dimensional and lacked proficiency with complex route trees led him to the third round. was defeated until
Representing the best-case scenario, Hyatt cited DeVonta Smith and Jameson Williams as examples of lean, lanky receivers who entered the league as downfield threats and developed into all-around weapons.
Although the sample size is quite small, Hyatt's catches actually feature catches on a variety of routes rather than down the field like he did during his rookie season.
His yards per reception has decreased from 16.2 yards last year to 7.6 yards per reception this year.
Again, this is very slight, but probably a small sign of some growth.
“What I've shown on tape so far this year is [that] Most of my catches this year haven’t been deep,” Hyatt said. “Last year everything was deep. This year it's shorter, slants, deep routes, in-breaks, out-breaks. It's not just go-balls. It's not just posting. It's just showing that I can be versatile in my route running. I'm just trying to get better on the spot.
“I know I didn’t get as many snapshots as I wanted to take, but I’m going to keep getting better when I get the chance.”
