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Projected Points (PPR)
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Isaiah Likely sits atop the depth chart at tight end for the New York Giants, with Theo Johnson behind him in a secondary role. Over 2025, spread across fourteen games with seven starts, Likely worked a 57.8% share of the offensive snaps, a number that speaks to a rotational but meaningful presence rather than a full-time role. His workload from that stretch produced thirty-six targets, twenty-seven catches, a 75% catch rate, 307 receiving yards, 11.4 yards per reception, and a single touchdown, with six red zone targets over the sample. That combination totaled 61.7 PPR points, or 4.4 per game, a finish of forty-five among all players at his position. Through one game in 2026, his snap share actually dipped to 49.3%, yet his usage inside that smaller window looked entirely different: eight targets, eight receptions, a perfect catch rate, 78 yards, two touchdowns, and three red zone looks, good for 27.8 PPR points and a finish of two at his position for that week. The gap between snap share and production is the story of his role right now — he is not on the field for every snap, but when he is targeted, the ball finds him and he finishes plays. Jaxson Dart, the team's starting quarterback, is the one distributing those opportunities, and his willingness to look for Likely in the red zone is the single biggest driver of the tight end's ceiling. Malik Nabers remains the primary receiving option in the passing game, and Cam Skattebo anchors the run game, which means Likely's role is built around the space those two leave underneath and in the intermediate areas rather than a target-hog assignment of his own.
The case for Isaiah Likely starts with red zone trust. Six red zone targets across fourteen games in 2025 became three in a single game to open 2026, and two of his eight catches in that opener went for touchdowns. A tight end who draws goal-line and red zone looks from his quarterback carries fantasy value even on modest snap counts, because touchdowns are the most efficient path to points at the position. Jaxson Dart's comfort targeting him inside the twenty, paired with a perfect catch rate on eight targets in the opener, suggests a rapport that could sustain a real role as the season develops. If Dart continues to lean on Likely as a safety valve and scoring option, the tight end's per-game output could look much closer to that 27.8-point opener than to last year's 4.4-point average. The case against him is built on volume and sample size. A 49.3% snap share is not the workload of a featured piece; it is a role that shares meaningful time with Theo Johnson and leaves Likely off the field for roughly half of his team's snaps. The 2025 season showed what a modest-role tight end profile looks like over a full year: 61.7 total PPR points, a per-game average of 4.4, and a finish of forty-five among his positional peers. Those numbers reflect a player who was frequently targeted at a low rate and rarely found the end zone, catching only one touchdown across the entire fourteen-game stretch. One game of touchdown production, however loud, is a single data point, and touchdown rates at tight end are notoriously volatile from week to week. The 11.4 yards-per-reception figure from 2025 also points to a possession-and-red-zone profile rather than one built on downfield or after-catch yardage, meaning his weekly ceiling is capped unless the touchdowns keep coming. The honest read is that Likely's role has not fundamentally changed — he is still working well under a full snap share, and Malik Nabers still commands the lion's share of Jaxson Dart's non-running-back attention. What changed in one week was touchdown variance landing in Likely's favor. Whether that becomes a real pattern depends on whether Dart keeps funneling red zone looks his way at a rate resembling three targets in a single outing, or whether the 2025 rate of six across fourteen games reasserts itself. Managers should weigh the sustainable role indicated by his snap percentage against the flashier weekly finish, understanding that one belongs to the full season and the other to a small sample.
Treat Isaiah Likely as a streaming option at tight end rather than a locked-in starter. His snap share of 49.3% does not support assuming he plays a full-time role, and his 2025 season-long line of 61.7 PPR points over fourteen games is the more reliable baseline for weekly expectations than his one-game finish of 27.8 points. For managers in shallower leagues, he is worth stashing on the roster to monitor whether Jaxson Dart continues targeting him in the red zone at a rate resembling three looks in an opener rather than the six-over-fourteen-games pace from a year ago. In deeper or tight-end-premium formats, he can be plugged in as a flex-caliber play when the matchup favors a receiving tight end, but he should not be treated as a locked lineup piece purely off one big game. What would change this: sustained red zone target volume over multiple weeks, a snap share climbing meaningfully above the 49.3% mark, or a continued run of touchdown production that suggests Dart has made him a real weapon rather than a complementary piece behind Malik Nabers. Until that volume shows up consistently, the safer approach is bench-and-watch, using his weekly report to decide on a start rather than assuming last week's finish repeats.
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