Jalin Hyatt vows to stay ‘ready’ through tough Giants sophomore year

Jalin Hyatt smiled, knowing his answer wouldn’t make much sense to anyone but himself.

How much has this season taken a toll on his confidence?

“It’s crazy, but it’s growing,” Hyatt told The Post. “I’m the most confident guy with myself. The receivers believe in me, the coaches believe in me, but I definitely believe in myself. That’s why it was tough on me in the beginning of the season to go through what happened. I just had to live with it and continue to get better. But I still have all the confidence in the world.”

He would have a plethora of reasons for the opposite.

Hyatt has just seven catches for 53 yards and no touchdowns this season, his second after the Giants traded up in the third round to draft him.

He’s barely been able to get on the field, playing just 36 percent of snaps on offense.

After the first two games of the year, he denied a report that he had shouted that the team should trade him during a training camp practice in August.

As a rookie, he showed a few flashes as a speedy downfield threat with 23 catches for 373 yards while playing 51 percent of the snaps on offense.

But Malik Nabers’ arrival and with Wan’Dale Robinson and Darius Slayton back, Hyatt was pushed down the depth chart into near-forgotten territory.

He’s done little with the few chances he’s gotten.

In what otherwise appears headed for a lost season, Hyatt said he believes he will at least take away one valuable lesson.

“Staying ready. For me, I think that was the biggest thing,” Hyatt said. “When [Slayton] went down a couple weeks ago in the beginning of the season, I felt like I wasn’t ready to get in that game and do what I had to do. And I told myself that will never happen to me again.”

Slayton suffered a concussion during the Giants’ Week 9 loss to the Commanders.

Hyatt played four snaps and was not targeted.

But a week later, he delivered his best game of the year with four catches — three of which came on the team’s game-tying drive to force overtime — for 39 yards in the Giants’ Week 10 loss to the Panthers in Germany.

It’s marginal, but it’s perhaps a sign of growth.

Did he change anything?

“Watching more film,” Hyatt said. “Studying the guys that I’m actually playing. Seeing their weaknesses, seeing their strengths and trying to attack their weaknesses.

“Staying in the weight room. Last year, I didn’t really stay in the weight room a lot. This year that’s one of the biggest changes I wanted to make so I can play more physical and get off the line and not only that, make contested catches. That’s what I want to continue to keep doing. It’s all about chances.”

Nabers did not practice on Friday with hip flexor injury, and he is questionable for Sunday’s game against the Saints.

If he can’t play, that would represent another opportunity for Hyatt to see more playing time.

The 2022 Biletnikoff Award winner (given to the top collegiate receiver) while at Tennessee, concerns that Hyatt was one-dimensional and not adept at a complex route tree led to him to fall all the way to the third round.

Representing best-case scenarios, Hyatt pointed to DeVonta Smith and Jameson Williams as examples of receivers with his skinny, lanky build who entered the league as downfield threats and developed into all-around weapons.

Though the sample size is minuscule, Hyatt’s catches have actually featured more of a variety of routes rather than down the field, as in his rookie season.

His yards per reception is down from 16.2 last year to 7.6 this year.

Again, it’s extremely marginal, but perhaps a small sign of some growth.

“What I’ve shown so far on tape this year is [that] most of my catches this year aren’t deep,” Hyatt said. “Last year, they were all deep. This year, they are more short — the slants or the deep route, in-breaking, out-breaking. Not just go balls. Not just posts. Just showing I can be diverse in my route running. Just trying to get better at that spot.

“I know I didn’t get a lot of snaps I would’ve wished of having, but I’m going to continue to keep getting better when that chance comes.”