00:05our new york post sports giants week one game ball goes to drum roll please
00:13isaiah likely this dude absolutely stole the show in his giants debut eight catches 78 yards two
00:20touchdowns on eight targets that's flawless with the targets y'all and he led all giants receivers
00:27now this is a guy that they brought in to be the second receiving threat while malik neighbors got
00:32himself back to neighbors 2.0 and we saw a little bit of that in this game in terms of
00:39malik neighbors
00:39getting back to who he was before the acl injury but i knew isaiah likely was going to have a
00:46huge
00:47part in this passing offense we saw it all throughout the spring and we saw it all throughout
00:53training camp during the summer and the signs were there that he was going to eat in this
00:59offense because his offensive coordinator matt nagy comes from kansas city where andy reed calls plays
01:05to get the ball to a future hall of fame tight end and travis kelsey plus isaiah likely put in
01:12a lot
01:12of work down in baltimore despite playing behind mark andrews so let's break down how likely put on
01:19the show and why he deserves our blue rush game ball
01:27all right isaiah likely you see him here split out as i guess you know you can tell him a
01:32detached
01:33tight end i like to call it a close split by a wide receiver but he lined up in the
01:38receiver position
01:39or you know receiver position in slot a lot this game so you kind of get an idea and a
01:46feel
01:46on how matt nagy is thinking about using him throughout the course of the season but let's
01:52watch this play and then we'll go back nice little out route catch get up field love it absolutely love
02:01it you saw malik neighbors run this route he kind of slipped uh jackson dart they they didn't connect
02:06on it on one time when he when he ran it but malik ran it from more of a detached
02:12true wide receiver
02:13position but this is a way that you're able to find where the one-on-one is where the matchup
02:19is
02:19you got a 12 personnel two receivers uh two tight ends you see theo johnson split out right here is
02:26that third receiver or third uh pass threat all over to that strong side and now you have him
02:33in terms of isaiah likely backside as an x this is your route runner this is the guy that you
02:40want to
02:40get to the football so right here inside foot i like to break here because the giants run a lot
02:46of glances they run a lot of quick posts they run a lot of ends now this has a step
02:51right here this jab
02:52step that that gets that defender to try and unlock his hips and break towards the end breaking route
03:01does a good job of it he bites enough but here's what i love most about likely and why he's
03:07able to run
03:08the entire route tree like he's a wide receiver he understands leverage he understands um how to how
03:16to win with leverage so he knows he's inside on the outbreaking route but he doesn't panic again he
03:22gives the jab step to try and get this defender to move in a little bit but now he understands
03:28what
03:28he has to beat to gain leverage now you see this eight this this defender is outside shade right now
03:36on an outbreaking route he knows that he's going to have to beat this hand and win with speed to
03:43the
03:43sideline and that's exactly what he does you see it subtle move beats that right right arm by this
03:52defender beats it and that's what's able to get him the separation here now you see him turn and run
04:00he's gaining the separation you want to see him be a little bit more qb friendly here come downhill
04:06because a lot of these defenders are able to to jump cut that to jump underneath and maybe get in
04:12phase
04:13on uh on an underthrown or behind thrown football but jackson dart puts it up and over so i'm thinking
04:20was this an out route or was it some sort of corner route single man corner route
04:26ball ball ball placements there catches gets upfield for a little bit of yak
04:32he won on the one-on-one my te1 won his one-on-one move the chains
04:41now you'll see the motion darnell mooney over for isaiah likely to run the corner route on the
04:47on the snag technique it's like a smash concept you'll see it i'll break it down but just think
04:53corner route and think some sort of flat control here let's watch you see him here again in that
04:59detached split you motion a wide receiver over and it now becomes a two by two you're forcing the
05:06cowboys to communicate not only how you're going to play you got three receivers so we've got uh 11
05:13personnel one back one tied in three wide receivers forcing the cowboys communicate how they're going to
05:21play this shell coverage you see likely here let's watch
05:28busted coverage busted coverage by by design because of the smoke in the mirrors because
05:34of the window dressing so instead of just having them line up in the traditional two by two they're
05:40in this three by one that we saw earlier this time in the 11 personnel not the 12 personnel with
05:46two tight ends but now darnell mooney comes over makes it into a two by two
05:54and i don't want to say a stack formation i don't want to call that stack because he'd be a
05:58little bit
05:59closer but now jackson dart we're running this smash concept usually you'll see the hitch with the corner
06:06you see the the whip route the snag route the return route whichever you want to call it with the
06:12corner route this is this is a cover two beater and can even beat cover four at times depending if
06:18you
06:18get a a no a nosy corner like bland here but let's see how this how they attack this coverage
06:27all right
06:27so the backer comes back over it's looking like it's some sort of cover four shell here maybe cover
06:33two because he's playing on this outside looks like it's cover two
06:38now i'm getting i got cover four i'm getting cover four and this corner just gets nosy on this snag
06:45route here so this is the best part about it so here's how you're winning if this if this corner
06:51is supposed to be playing in his deep four his deep four you split cover four up cover four means
06:58you're splitting the four the the field into four into four sections one two three four this corner's got
07:06all this this area right here safety safety corner if this is a true cover four he gets nosy tries
07:14to
07:14jump this snag route this route is supposed to be played by the backer now if deron bland gets depth
07:22here and robs this corner then you're going to the return route right here because this this linebacker
07:31is out flanked but no you've got a nosy corner jump this receiver and now likely has the leverage
07:39on this safety whose eyes are still on jackson dart he's trusting his corner to be there over the top
07:48he's not going to let likely win on anything to the inside great for him to stay high keep a
07:56high
07:57angle out of the break he knew it was going to be a touchdown usually you'll see a corner fall
08:03off
08:03and come in phase especially when you see a receiver or a pass catcher flatten this off but great job
08:09by
08:10jackson dart putting it up and out there so no one can come back in phase but great job of
08:16likely boom
08:17again going up for the football attacking the football turning yeah being able to drag and get
08:25two feet in bounds and scoring that's a hard catch right there and a lot of times we've seen that
08:32ball
08:32dropped or maybe a foot touched the white line and it not be completed great job by not only the
08:40coordinator with the concept the receivers executing the concept the quarterback for making the throw
08:48and likely coming down with it
08:53here's another touchdown here you got them split again you've got 13 personnel here one two three
09:02you've got three tight ends one back and you've got braxton burials who you can run your jet sweeps with
09:08you can run you know you can do all types of stuff so he adds another element to the run
09:12game but
09:13you've got scat here let's watch then we break down
09:21playing ball just playing ball understanding where to be in the offense you've got to snag some sort of
09:26a it's a pick route it's it's he's running the pick for scat to hit the flat he runs the
09:34sit route
09:34you want to force scats man if it's man to man to go over the top so scat can catch
09:39it in the flat
09:40get up the field but if it's nothing there one there's no one to pick dn decides or this end
09:49man
09:49on the line of scrimmage or end defender decides to go play jackson dart corner comes off plays the flat
09:56so they actually got this covered pretty nicely but whoever's supposed to fall in and be here
10:05forgot the assignment isaiah likely catches it gets into the end zone he's able to do so much you're
10:12able to do so many things with this guy because you don't know is he running some sort of pick
10:16is he running around you don't know what he's going to do
10:22all right lastly we've seen him in this detached split as a tight end we've seen him line up and
10:30the outside we've seen him in the slot we've seen him all over now he's the third man in the
10:35slot
10:35again 12 personnel two tight ends one running back well one running back two tight ends two wide receivers
10:45but he ain't your average tight end so you got to play him and adjust as such let's watch it
10:52and then
10:52we'll get back to it third down turns to a first down move those chains let's break it down
11:06got man coverage across the board they're gonna they're trying to disguise it trying to look like
11:11it could be some sort of too high but it's gonna be man to man cover 11 cover 11 man
11:17man this guy's
11:19gonna have try and play isaiah likely from eight to ten yards off the ball he's man here and he's
11:27he's a pass rusher this man free cover 11 this dude this guy's got green dog if this running back
11:33stays he's got the running back man to man but if the running back stays in the block he adds
11:38on
11:38likely running this deep over
11:44we're taught to go under the first defender but then we want to go over the second defender but
11:51it's not zone here so once he feels this free release watch how he gives a little we he wants
11:57we i mean depending on where he needs to be what his yardage his landmark is over here if it's
12:03a deeper
12:03over we especially off of a play action we want him to take three hard steps then cross it over
12:09gives that but once he identifies let's see clears that backer i believe takes the one two steps jabs
12:19and just races to get to his spot he understand where he needed to be to get to his spot
12:24good ball
12:25by jackson dart and just you can run him on the overs you could have ran some sort of return
12:30route from
12:31there you could run the corner route with him in that as that third receiver in the slot you can
12:36do so much
12:36with this dude you can do so much with him he is a cheat code but he's also sure hands
12:44and he showed that
12:45in his giants debut
12:50the dude he can run the entire route tree and he catches the football away from his body he's a
12:56hand
12:57catcher but two touchdowns eight catches on eight targets an instant chemistry with a young quarterback
13:05that right there on primetime football that's not a debut that's making a statement dallas didn't have
13:13an answer for this dude in the middle of the field why he's running seven routes or corner routes
13:18or why they leaked him through the flats and if week one is the floor then defenses across the nfc
13:26east or
13:27heck the entire nfc is going to have a real problem having this kid eat in the offense
13:32and eat early is going to open things up for malik neighbors malachi fields who's going to be trending
13:40in the right direction and obviously some other wide receivers in the passing game but i think that
13:45he is going to be the ultimate threat when defenses try and load the box to try and stop the
13:53run
13:53by the giants leaking him out in the flat on a play action or he gets to run a route
14:00on a box safety
14:01or even some sort of wheel linebacker the giants got some much needed instant production from a guy that
14:09they paid in the offseason and because of that isaiah likely gets our week one new york post sports game
14:17ball
14:17you
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