Chris Simms said earlier in the offseason that he expects big things from Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.
The football analyst placed Jones higher than Sam Darnold in his annual quarterback rankings, going so far as to say he thinks he can be a "top 10 quarterback" in 2020.
While Chris's father, Giants great Phil Simms, won't go quite so far in his appraisal of the second-year quarterback, he does agree that Jones has a much friendlier situation ahead of him in 2020 than that of Darnold.
Simms discussed the two New York starting quarterbacks, in addition to the upcoming season as a whole, on "Green Light With Chris Long", and talked about the skill positions surrounding Jones.
"Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, then you look at Golden Tate -- who I kind of thought... may be going on the downside -- but he really showed last year, I was really impressed how he played," Simms said. "Sterling Shepard... then they hit gold , I think, last year with Darius Slayton from Auburn."
Out of all the names listed above, you may not expect Slayton to be the one that Simms lauded the most. However, given the respective draft value of everyone, he's certainly on to something. Barkley was the second overall pick in 2018. Engram was a first rounder the year before. Sterling Shepard was within the top 50 picks, as the Giants selected him early in the second round of the 2016 draft. Tate was a proven commodity by the time he came to the Giants, eclipsing 1,000 yards three times in his career.
Slayton? A fifth-round pick in 2019, taken by the Giants after 170 names had already fallen off the board.
Despite that, he was one of five rookie wide receivers to finish with over 700 yards in 2019, ahead of names like Marquise Brown (first round), N'Keal Harry (first round), Mecole Hardman (second round), JJ Arcega-Whiteside (second round) and several others.
Simms thinks that teams may have overlooked his obvious assets in fear of a few dropped balls.
"I mean -- speed!" Simms said. "When you get guys that are just, really, faster than almost all the other NFL players... he drops an occasional pass, that was the big thing coming out of college and I go, well I don't care! He can drop a deep one every now and then, but when he catches them, it's paydirt."
Slayton had 12 catches that went for 20 yards or more in 2019, including two that went for over 40 in a Week 14 contest against the Eagles. He finished the game with 154 yards and two touchdowns, making him one of just 15 receivers in the 2019 NFL to achieve a game with 150 yards and a pair of scores.
He also put his name in some of the Giants' record books as well, as his 740 total receiving yards was good for fifth all-time in terms of Giants rookies. His eight touchdowns was tied for second with Sterling Shepard among rookies in team history, trailing only Odell Beckham Jr. (12).
Reports say that the Jones-Slayton connection looks great in camp so far.
Daniel Jones to Darius Slayton, a connection the #Giants have high hopes for in 2020 ... pic.twitter.com/qQGubUvFB3
— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) August 20, 2020
In terms of fantasy football, Slayton was someone I listed as a potential wide receiver steal back in late May. Hopefully, his hype hasn't pushed him too far up the draft boards and you can still snag him relatively late.
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