Giants' Jalin Hyatt dials in to No. 13
Giants wide receiver Jalin Hyatt makes a catch during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J. on Thursday, Aug. 3. Credit: James Escher
Jalin Hyatt knew what he was getting himself into.
He knew what we’d all immediately think, what we’d whisper and murmur over. The comparisons we’d make. The questions we’d ask.
He didn’t care.
“There’s no story behind it,” he said with a cool breeziness on Wednesday regarding his recent jersey number change. “I just want to start my own legacy with it and do my best for the Giants in it. That’s it.”
Thirteen.
That’s his new identification number. On his helmet, his shirts, his shoes. One day soon, when they get around to it, on the nameplate above his locker.
He could have easily stuck with the 84 he was issued back in the spring and wore throughout the preseason. It’s a good receiver number. Randy Moss. Andre Reed. It even has some non-receiver Giants lore to it. It was Andy Robustelli’s number.
He said he wanted a low number, though. Those high ones are for old dudes. The 11 he wore in college, that’s retired for Phil Simms. Ok, but there were other single digits and teens laying around, too.
No. He went straight for Odell Beckham Jr.’s old number.
“Most of the decision was mine,” he said. “I asked some of my teammates what they thought and they told me I should do it. I’m excited to make that change. Can’t wait to go out there Week 1 with that jersey number and do what I do.”
Hyatt isn’t the first receiver to don 13 since Beckham’s spectacular stint and then ugly divorce from the Giants. Just a few weeks after they traded him to the Browns in the spring of 2019 the Giants issued it to an undrafted rookie, Reggie Wayne Jr. He didn’t make the team. The following year veteran receiver Dante Pettis became the first post-Beckham player to wear it in an actual game. Last year David Sills was 13.
Sills was still wearing it in training camp, too, until he was released on Tuesday. That’s when it became available. And Hyatt grabbed it. He jumped in Sills’ locker, too, the one right next to quarterback Daniel Jones. But it’s the number that was the most jarring change for Hyatt.
Now he is far and away the most prominent and exciting player to wear it since Beckham. And for better or worse, they’ll forever be linked by it.
Others change numbers all the time. First-round pick Deonte Banks spent the past few months cringing over his 36 jersey. Now that the roster has been trimmed he’s switched to 25. Rookie safety Gervarrius Owens swapped 31 for 39. Even veterans have to adjust. Recently acquired linebackers Isaiah Simmons and Boogie Basham are wearing numbers different from what they had with their previous team, now in 19 and 45, respectively. It’s worth noting that these days not even Beckham wears 13. He was number 3 when he won a Super Bowl with the Rams and is wearing that number now with the Ravens.
But around here, 13 carries more weight than all of them combined. And now Hyatt pulls it on over his head each and every day.
While those of us who have watched the Giants for years viscerally and immediately think of Beckham in relation to that number, there aren’t many left in the locker room who still do. One of them just happens to sit on the other side of Hyatt opposite Jones.
“It looks good on him, that’s what I think,” Sterling Shepard told Newsday. “Obviously the number 13, I ain’t got nothing but positive things to say about that number. But seeing the young boy, how he works and how he plays, I thought it was very fitting.”
Shepard also liked the chutzpah – our word, not his – that Hyatt showed by purposefully putting himself in the same thought as Beckham.
“I love mentally strong people and that’s what he is,” Shepard said. “You know what might come with that number, what people are thinking, and he ain’t gonna run from it. He’s very talented and very confident in his ability. That’s all that matters.”
Hyatt and Beckham actually met and worked out together in Arizona this offseason before Hyatt was drafted by the Giants. Hyatt obviously knew Beckham. He was blown away that Beckham knew who he was.
“It shows a lot of love that he has for the Giants,” Hyatt said. “A lot of respect for him.”
Hyatt was a middle schooler in South Carolina in 2014 when Beckham was a rookie for the Giants and set the NFL ablaze.
“He had a great career here with the Giants,” Hyatt said. “He kind of took over. I was a fan when I was young. Watching him in high school and college to now being here. But with the jersey number, it was one of those things, I wanted to start my own legacy with it.”
He’ll get a chance to do that starting next week.
As a rookie receiver. In a Sunday night game. Against the Cowboys.
That’s the same setting Beckham had for the one-handed catch that sent his career into a different stratosphere. He was already on his way to setting production records and winning the offensive rookie of the year award, but that catch became iconic and made Beckham a superstar.
Hyatt recognizes the potential for that similarity, too.
“Hey, first game, a lot of opportunities, I can’t wait for it,” he said. “Can’t wait to be out there with my teammates, do what I have to do, and get the job done.”
If he can, maybe a few years from now some other hotshot rookie receiver will come along and try to measure up to greatness by wearing 13.
Only by then it’ll be Hyatt’s number, not Beckham’s.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
