Two incompletions still resulted in big gains for Jalin Hyatt.
Without catching either of the deep passes that the Giants dialed up for him against Sauce Gardner during a preseason game against the Jets, Hyatt learned three things that continue to serve him well: His speed gives him an edge over All-Pro cornerbacks, his coaches trust him and keeping a cool head amid trash talk is part of the NFL.
“That goes a long way when you just got drafted, you’re trying to get in the flow of things and the whole week they’re saying, ‘Let’s just go at Sauce and see if we can make a play,’” Hyatt told The Post. “It shows a lot of confidence in me from our coaching staff.”
Gardner sounded dumbfounded — even insulted — that the Giants challenged him with a backup quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, and a rookie receiver.
His reactions, as aired by HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” included:
“Boy, you with the bigs!”
“The f–k is they doing?”
“It’s game day now. This different!”
“We all talk like that — we’re all competitors — so I’m not surprised,” Hyatt said. “I didn’t hear it out there — I heard it on ‘Hard Knocks’ later on — but it is what it is. We’re ready to play. This is a big-time matchup, big opportunity for us.”
The Giants and Jets meet again Sunday.
Taylor, who will make his third straight start in place of Daniel Jones, and Hyatt, a third-round pick, are much more in sync now than in the preseason.
The first shot of the game sailed out of bounds after Hyatt came in motion and used a stutter go-route to get behind Gardner down the sideline and had to slow down for the ball.
The second was broken up in tight coverage.
Just last week, however, the duo connected for completions of 33 and 42 yards in a win against the Commanders.
“I’ve been doing that since high school — really, middle school — so it’s really second nature to me, those deep passes,” Hyatt said. “I’m just trying to become a complete receiver. I don’t want them to look at me and say, ‘Oh, he’s going deep. That’s how he gets his yardage.’ I want to be able to do everything like how the elite guys do in this league. I have a lot of growing to do.”
Hyatt is responsible for four of the Giants’ six gains of 30-plus yards this season.
The most recent might have been the most impressive, as he dragged his toes before falling out of bounds for his second big play of the Giants’ second victory last Sunday against Washington.
“[When] I’m the No. 1 read, I have to make plays,” Hyatt said. “Really, both of them, those are routine plays we have to make.”
Except that the Giants haven’t had a receiver who made the big play look routine since Odell Beckham Jr.
“When you make as many plays as he’s made the past couple of weeks and just generally throughout the season, the confidence builds,” Taylor said. “Going to continue to keep leaning on him to grow as a player. He creates explosiveness in this offense.”
One potential long-term benefit to the Giants’ underwhelming start was it hastened head coach Brian Daboll’s decision to shorten the receiver rotation and emphasize the development of Hyatt and second-year pro Wan’Dale Robinson at the expense of reps for veterans Parris Campbell and Sterling Shepard.
Hyatt is spending extra time with receivers coach Mike Groh during the week to learn all three receivers spots within the scheme.
Gardner and fellow cornerback starter D.J. Reed both are back for the Jets after missing last game.
“We play elite defenses, so you have to put your playmakers in different spots,” Hyatt said. “Both corners are elite. Sauce has confidence and he’s very good with his feet. He knows how to move and use his length. They will probably come out and say man-on-man and we have to win our matchups.”
Gardner left the preseason understanding that offenses are going to throw at him until he ups his interception total, saying he “looked forward to having more opportunities like how the Giants gave me those.”
So far, he’s been shutout, but Daboll doesn’t want the Giants to shy away.
“ ‘Run fast,’ he tells me every day,” Hyatt said. “On game days, he winks at me and I think we know what time it is. I have so much confidence in him, and I was so happy when they drafted me.”
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