Sports

Ryan Clark added fuel to Giants fans’ wildest Isaiah Likely hopes

GMEN HQ · Jul 22, 2026 10:00 · 3 min read

Ryan Clark added fuel to Giants fans’ wildest Isaiah Likely hopes — Baltimore Ravens - tight end Isaiah Likely | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Ryan Clark just gave New York Giants fans a comparison that’s almost impossible to ignore heading into the 2026 season.

The comparison game. It's a game that we, as fans, play daily, sometimes without even knowing it. "Our new draft pick is the next [insert star name here]." Or, "he's just a bigger/smaller version of [insert star name here]."

I do it all the time. You're going to sit there and try to convince me that New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart isn't just a smaller version of Josh Allen? Or how about that wide receiver Malik Nabers isn't the second coming of CeeDee Lamb? Lol, good luck with that. Once you see it, you can't unsee it, and apparently former players can't either.

Appearing on NFL Live, former 13-year defensive back turned football analyst Ryan Clark took a stab at the player comp game, heaping Hall of Fame-level praise on Big Blue's flashy, new tight end, Isaiah Likely:

He can have a young Travis Kelce effect for this New York Giants offense.Ryan Clark

It's not every day that a tight end gets compared to arguably the best to ever do it, but when they do, it’s all but impossible not to get lost in that comparison sauce for a second before coming back down to earth. Because if Clark is telling me that Likely can have a similar impact on the offense as Kelce did for the Chiefs, you cannot convince me that Likely isn't going to go absolutely bonkers.

Giants might just unlock the (Travis Kelce) -- err... best version of Isaiah Likely

For what it's worth, Clark is almost exclusively talking about their play styles. In no way, shape, or form has Likely's production even remotely come close to Kelce's throughout their first four years in the league.

However, his smooth route running, after-the-catch playmaking ability, and dynamic "jumbo slot" utilization do look eerily similar to mustard and ketchup's own No. 87... which is objectively awesome.

The 11-time Pro Bowler and three-time Super Bowl-winning tight end came into the league going over 800 receiving yards. If you omit his first year lost to a brutal knee injury -- if you can call it a rookie season (he only played one game) -- Kelce has never had less than 820 receiving yards or three touchdowns in a season.

That’s obviously a far cry from what Likely has produced so far, but that’s also the price you pay when three-time Pro Bowler Mark Andrews is ahead of you on the depth chart. The 26-year-old has never eclipsed 477 receiving yards in a season before.

Handing him a three-year, $40 million deal earlier this offseason says much more about how the Giants plan on using him moving forward than anything he's previously done -- consider the 6-foot-4, 245-pounder an upside play. That contract gets a lot easier to swallow if the Cambridge, MA native starts showing shades of Kelce in his game.

He now has the opportunity to produce at a level we’ve never seen from him before. Malik Nabers' health is still very much up in the air. And who knows better than Likely how new head coach John Harbaugh likes to use multiple tight ends in the passing game to create mismatches (after all, he spent the first four years of his career with Harbs in Baltimore).