Giants wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins went from a midseason waiver-wire pickup to one of the best players on the field in his team’s biggest win of the year, and he did it on a badly injured foot.
Hodgins revealed on the 2nd Wind Podcast that what he initially thought was a fairly minor ankle injury the day before the Giants’ playoff game against the Vikings actually was a broken bone in his foot that caused him considerable pain and swelling.
“I actually ended up having a slight fracture in my foot,” Hodgins said. “It was just a thing that happened the Friday before the game,” Hodgins said. “I thought it was just a high-ankle sprain — ankle was black and blue, [Giants coach Brian Daboll] was all scared. Everyone was like, ‘Oh, you gonna play?’”
Hodgins said that by the second half, he could no longer run routes that required him to plant off the injured foot and had to adjust on the fly, sometimes asking another wide receiver to switch sides of the field with him so he’d be planting on his good foot. Despite that Hodgins was the Giants’ leading receiver in that game, catching eight passes for 105 yards and a touchdown as they beat the Vikings.
Hodgins said his father, former NFL fullback James Hodgins, told him after the game, “Isn’t that crazy? You probably felt your worst and had the best game of your career.”
Although Hodgins toughed it out and played again the next week, he managed just one catch for three yards in a loss to the Eagles. But he appears to have done enough to prove to the Giants that he deserves to be a major part of their passing game going forward.
