Darius Slayton didn’t get much run for the Giants in September, but as the team’s receiving corps has continued to get depleted, he turned into the de facto No. 1 receiver for last Sunday’s game in London.
Head coach Brian Daboll has said all along that Slayton has taken his reduced role like a pro, and that’s exactly what he looked like Sunday, hauling in six of seven targets for 79 yards and five first downs.
“I think kind of said it before, you just focus on your craft. Focus on bettering myself, making sure that all my skills are sharp and that I knew my plays. That way I'd be ready for whenever my opportunity came,” Slayton said Wednesday when asked how he has prepared for his lesser role this season. “I feel you can't always be like what you do and don't deserve because you can't ever get too high and can't ever get too low. So, I just kind of take opportunities as they come and take advantage of them.”
It’s a new era of Giants football, and Slayton had to take a pay cut to stay part of it, agreeing to drop his salary from $2.54 million to the league minimum of $965K. He can earn some of that cut cash back via playing time incentives, which look more and more likely to hit, and while he laughed that “I don’t think it works that way” when a reported jokingly asked if he could restructure his deal again, he’s more excited about the change in culture and attitude around Big Blue.
Related
“I know I love coming here, I love my teammates and playing ball, so I think having a positive work environment definitely helps,” Slayton said. “At the end of the day the NFL's a business. Everybody at some point in their career goes through something, but definitely having good guys around you help a lot, and there’s a positive energy. Obviously, people are held accountable, people are held to a really high standard, but at the same time I think kind of a new staff and some new faces we have in the building have done a great job of pumping in good, confident energy and it showed.”
With that positive attitude, he also noted that the new staff is making it a lot easier to play Giants football these days.
“I think (Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka) has done a great job putting together some offensive plans and helping all of us be in a position to succeed and use our strengths. Then on the flip side, (Defensive Coordinator) Wink (Martindale) has done an amazing job. I think they held the Packers scoreless in the second half. With one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time it's not easy to do. X's and O's I believe have also improved.”
Slayton also said that “it’s easy to be a receiver here right now” when asked about Daniel Jones’ performance, and the starting QB gave him similar dap after his performance in London.
Related
“I have a lot of trust and confidence in him. We've been here since we were both rookies, and I've played a lot of football with him and built up a lot of trust, a lot of chemistry over time,” Jones said. “To see him go out there and have that good of a game was exciting and I was happy for him.
We'll continue to try and get him the ball, but he was big time on Sunday.”
Slayton began the season way down the Giants’ depth chart, but with Sterling Shepard out for the season and Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney, and Wan’Dale Robinson now in the midst of multi-week injury absences, it’s going to be Slayton picking up the slack as a veteran receiver.
And he knows that even in that position, on a team where head coach Brian Daboll is judging based on work ethic and results instead of contract status, the work never stops – and Daboll has noticed that Slayton has never stopped working hard, no matter his place on the depth chart, and gave this simple synopsis of Sunday:
“I was proud of the way Slay competed and produced.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Listen live to WFAN via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
Follow WFAN on Social Media:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch