Jalin Hyatt sat on a stool in front of his locker holding an iPad and pinching his fingers together to zoom in on film of his route-running.
The receiver, who set college football ablaze in 2022 and showed promise as a rookie last season, has another chance Sunday to emerge from the mysterious shadows in which he has spent this season for the Giants.
With Darius Slayton not making the trip to Germany to face the Panthers due a concussion, Hyatt is expected to start.
“I feel good about the game plan,” Hyatt told The Post after finding a groove with Daniel Jones during Thursday’s practice. “I haven’t had a lot of opportunities, but I haven’t made the most of my opportunities when they came this year. Right now, it’s just about taking advantage — staying focused, getting open, trusting D.J. and catching the ball.”
Hyatt has one catch for 6 yards over eight games.
By now, the speedy deep-ball threat, who was a starter when training camp opened, was expected to have at least one catch for 10 times that yardage as part of a deeper résumé.
Instead, Hyatt has played as many as 64 snaps in a game when Malik Nabers was sidelined and as few as seven total over the past three games, including zero against the Steelers on Oct. 28.
“What you don’t want to do is get worse,” Hyatt said. “How you get worse is not caring, not doing a full effort when things aren’t going your way. When I was a sophomore at Tennessee, I had given up when I didn’t play. I changed that going into my junior year, so I’ve gone through adversity before and I’m using the tools to get better when you don’t have a lot of opportunities.”
Hyatt was so good as a junior — 67 catches for 1,267 with 15 touchdowns — that he won the Biletnikoff Award for best receiver in the nation, and he had the Giants willing to trade a fourth-round pick to move up in the third to draft him.
Two years later, the Giants aren’t even calling an end-around or a bubble screen to see if Hyatt’s explosiveness can awaken the NFL’s lowest-scoring offense.
He has been targeted five times on throws of 20-plus yards.
“When we talk about the game plan, we talk about putting these guys in certain spots,” offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said. “I don’t think he’s had enough opportunities to do it. Any week could present those. When they show up, I’m confident that Jalin will be able to make those plays.”
Hyatt can’t quite put his finger on why he’s not a bigger part of the offense.
The easiest explanation is that the Giants have stayed relatively healthy at receiver, so Slayton, Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson rarely leave the field.
There was that two-game absence for Nabers, however, when Hyatt was in a similar position to now.
The assignments are slightly different in Nabers’ spot in the offense than in Slayton’s.
“We’re all competitors, and I want to be out there every snap, and I believe I should be out there,” Hyatt said. “Last year, I definitely had more opportunities, and that’s why I made more plays, but every season is different. I can’t control playing time or targets. For me, doing everything the right way is how you get your opportunities … so that [coach Brian Daboll] can trust me. That’s my goal.”
Hyatt’s teammates appreciate the approach he has taken to his limited role.
After all, Slayton is a free agent at the end of the season and Hyatt is signed for two more years.
“He’s always stayed locked in even when his number is not being called,” Robinson said. “He’s getting extra reps with the coaches, going over certain spots he might not even be in just in case somebody goes down. That’s a tough position to be in, so I’m sure it’s tough on him. You know when a guy is sulking, but he has been the ultimate teammate.”
That description includes working on the finer points of receiver, like releases off the line of scrimmage.
Or catching passes after practice and “putting myself in uncomfortable positions on the football field.”
“What I want to do is find anything I can so I’m not out there thinking,” Hyatt said. “I’m out there looking at defenses, knowing my assignment and playing fast.”
