Daniel Jeremiah mock draft 2.0: WR Jalin Hyatt to the Giants

The 2023 NFL Scouting Combine is almost here, and we know the New York Giants will be hard at work. The draft community is also hard at work, both getting ready for the combine and producing mock drafts as ways to view the prospects.

NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah released his Mock Draft 2.0 on Tuesday, addressing one of the Giants’ biggest needs.

As things stand now, the Giants have a bevy of needs on their roster and could use starters at several positions. The highest profile position of need is wide receiver, a position for which the Combine is always important. And while Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll were able to cobble together a receiving corps that was fine, it was hardly explosive.

Much of that receiving corps is now headed to free agency, as well.

The Giants desperately need to find a “number one” receiver who can be the focus of the offense and set the rest of the receivers up with better matchups.

Jeremiah mocked Tennessee wide receiver Jalin Hyatt to the Giants to address that need.

25. New York Giants
Jalin Hyatt, WR, Tennessee

The Giants are desperate for some explosiveness at receiver. Hyatt provides plenty of it.

Raptor’s Thoughts

Hyatt would likely be a polarizing pick for the Giants.

On one hand, DJ is definitely right that Hyatt would add a much-needed explosive element to the Giants’ passing attack. The Giants had, frankly, the least explosive passing offense in the NFL last year, with just 28 passes of 20+ yards, the lowest in the NFL.

The 2022 Biletnikoff Award winner (given to the best receiver in the country) might be the most dynamic receiving weapon in the 2023 draft class. Hyatt has legitimate track speed with a 10.46-second 100-meter dash, which is just 0.27s off of Tyreek Hill’s time of 10.19 seconds. Hyatt had a breakout season in 2022 with Cedric Tillman largely sidelined by a high ankle sprain. The Tennessee speedster caught 67 passes for 1,267 yards (18.91 yards per catch), and 15 touchdowns.

He is widely expected to be one of the stars of the upcoming combine and should test explosively in just about every measurable event. A 4.2 second 40-yard dash isn’t out of the question, and that always gets peoples’ attention.

His speed and explosiveness could boost his draft stock heading into the draft. Over the last couple seasons we’ve seen Henry Ruggs III and Garrett Wilson be drafted early and have success as rookies thanks to their speed.

On the other hand, Hyatt lacks great size and will probably measure somewhere around 6-foot, 185 pounds. Likewise, teams will need to reconcile the spacing in Tennessee’s extreme spread offense with their own offenses. NFL teams are increasingly influenced by collegiate spread offenses, but they still ask receivers to run more varied route trees and play in traffic more often than in many college offenses.

All of that could give teams pause when considering him.

As a receiver, and in a vacuum, Hyatt isn’t a finished product. He wasn’t asked to run a particularly diverse route tree — largely either running Fade, Go, or Post routes, shallow crossers, or wide receiver screens. He has a bit of savvy in his route running and knows how to vary his tempo or use subtle fakes at the top of his routes. However, he isn’t a technician at this point in his development. Predictably, he does a good job of adjusting to the ball downfield.

Haytt likely isn’t the receiver many want the Giants to get, but the Giants might not be able to get that guy this year. Hyatt would definitely be a weapon, even if he isn’t a “true number one” receiver.