Darius Slayton stayed away from the Giants this spring because he wanted more opportunities, whether that was in New York or somewhere else.
Slayton, 27, who has led the team in receiving yards four times in the past five years, said on the “All Facts No Brakes with Keyshawn Johnson” podcast that he would have welcomed a trade if there weren’t plans to make him a big part of this year’s offense.
“I don’t play football to just play,” Slayton said. “I want the chance to show that I’m amongst the best in the game. But the reality of being a receiver is if you don’t get the opportunities to do so, you’re not gonna have the production. For instance, last year I had 74 targets. There’s never in the history of football been a 1,000-yard season on less than 80 targets. Especially nowadays where guys are going for 1,600, 1,700 [yards], if you want to play at that pace, you need the ball.”
“So that was kind of what going into this offseason led to,” he continued. “Obviously you’re trying to maximize your dollars. But at the same time, I kinda wanted to make sure it was known that if being here and me being a part of the offense — and being a big part of the offense — is not the thing here, then that’s OK. But we’d either like to move on and go somewhere else or make the investment that implies that I am that. So that was kind of where we ended up.”
Slayton eventually returned to the team in late May on a slightly reworked contract, and he championed the Giants’ chances in 2024 during the recent interview, saying “we’re gonna be a tough team to beat as long as we take care of the football.”
But it’s worth wondering if Slayton still wouldn’t mind a trade — and if one could come to pass — given that the Joe Schoen draft pick trio of Malik Nabers, Jalin Hyatt and Wan’Dale Robinson projects to play a lot of snaps.
“To make a long story short, obviously I’m under contract, so I can’t get out of here unless they trade me or cut me — which they’re not gonna cut me,” Slayton said. “So when they didn’t opt to trade me [in the spring], I like to play. So when mandatory minicamp came around and guys [were] practicing, I play football because I love to play the game. So I was ready to get back on the field, ready to go compete. So whatever incentives they threw in there, we settled on and kept it pushing. And we’ll see how the year goes.”
The always-candid Slayton provided a lot more interesting insight on Johnson’s podcast. Here are some other highlights:
ON LONGTIME CB PATRICK PETERSON SAYING THERE IS “NOTHING IMPRESSIVE” ABOUT DANIEL JONES: “I mean ‘A,’ he’s entitled to his opinion. Obviously [he] played for a long time. I’ve got a lot of respect for Patrick Peterson. But at the same time, we played [his Minnesota Vikings team] twice in a four week span [in 2023], and we put up close to 30 [points] both times. And in the first game they only won off a 63-yard field goal. But it wasn’t like we were getting stopped.”
“And then we played them again in the playoffs, and [Jones] set a playoff yardage record at the Vikings [stadium], which [Peterson] was on the team at the time,” Slayton continued. “So it’s an interesting take. If it was maybe another team that we were maybe worse against, I would understand the take more. But it’s just an interesting take considering we saw them twice and it wasn’t like there was a whole lot of us not scoring. So it was an interesting take to me. He’s entitled to his own opinion. But I just found it odd that it came from that source.”
ON WHETHER DARREN WALLER’S RETIREMENT SHOCKED SLAYTON: “Nah. To be honest, last year he was … you know how it is in the locker room. I used to always tease him and be like, ‘I need one more year. I need one more year.’ He used to be like, ‘Man, Slay, I don’t got it in me, man. I don’t know. I don’t know.’ So I kinda figured he was probably on the way out.”
ON WHETHER SAQUON BARKLEY’S EAGLES SIGNING BOTHERED HIM: “Knowing the whole situation over the past two years and knowing the caliber of player that he is, I wasn’t too mad at him. At the end of the day he’s gotta do what’s best for him and that’s what he did. I think that there was, um. Hm (laughs). I just think that, you know — I’m sure you can maybe relate to this Keyshawn — sometimes you leave a place and you want to see that place again but on the other side. and sometimes the best way to do that is in the division where they gotta see you twice a year. So I think that sometimes having that something to prove — or wanting to prove to somebody — probably played some part in him specifically ending up in Philly. But also on Philly’s end, you gotta imagine for their organization, their front office, they would love nothing more than to take the Giants’ best player.”
ON HIS FEELINGS ABOUT THE DEFENSE AND TEAM: “I think for sure up front [on the defensive line] we’re gonna be crazy. I think our pass rush is gonna be amazing… I think we’re gonna be a tough team to beat as long as we take care of the football. We’ve got so many explosive players on offense, it’s just a matter of getting people the ball and letting people do what they do.”
ON BRIAN DABOLL’S OFFENSE BEING COMPLICATED: Slayton said Nabers is “really talented,” so he’ll have to overcome defenses keying on him and also work hard to master Daboll’s complicated offense.
“For us, our system, the biggest hiccup as a rookie is trying to get down all these terminologies that Daboll has for us,” Slayton said.
Slayton said sometimes Daboll’s offensive play calls will be condensed to one word in the huddle, and that word will indicate everyone’s responsibilities to them that they must memorize. But when the full play calls come into the huddle, Slayton said it can overload the mind.
“It gets to be a lot of words in the huddle, and then you get out there and you’re like alright, flank left, I’m right, I got the shift,” he said. “Alright it’s like, what was even my route sometimes. It gets a little wordy … I’m just telling you sometimes you get in there and you listening and you’re like, ‘Lord have mercy.’”
ON SLAYTON’S GOALS FOR THIS SEASON: “To win, is No. 1. My primary focus is just to win. I’ve had the year where I play well and we just lose. And it’s fun to play well and it’s cool, but at the end of the day, it just gets exhausting… You can’t even really leave the stadium as happy as you’d like to be because it’s like damn, what else do I need to do to get the job done? So that’s really my primary goal.”
“I have goals and things I want to achieve,” Slayton added. “But as we’ve already said, it’ll kind of come down to whether I get the opportunities. Last year I caught 50 balls on 74 targets for like 770 yards. There’s not a whole lot more you can squeeze out of that. There’s a play or two I could have made, of course. But at the end of the day, if you want to compete with the guys at the top of the league, you gotta get in that 150 — I gotta get in that Keyshawn Johnson target range in order to get the yards. So trying to find my way at least somewhere up there.”
Originally Published:
