Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton badly wants to win wherever he signs in free agency next week.
Getting paid and opportunities to catch are important. But being part of a competitive team is a clear priority for the seventh-year veteran who has consistently produced throughout New York‘s downturn.
“Definitely, winning and being in an advantageous situation are probably two things that are really important for me right now,” Slayton, 28, told the Daily News on The Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “Obviously, five out of my six years with the Giants we weren’t competitive. We didn’t make the playoffs. We weren’t really close to making the playoffs.
“And one thing I’ve learned in my career is … You play with guys that have [the attitude of] ‘If I go off and I get paid, I sleep great at night,’” Slayton continued. “And I have learned over my career that I do want to go off and I do want to get paid. But it weighs on me so heavy just losing. Every. Single. Week. I can’t take [it]. Like, there’s no money that’s gonna make me just go home and be like — I’m obviously gonna be a little more happy in my Hellcat than in a Camry — but like my spirit, the core of me cannot take that.”
There is no guarantee that any team will win, obviously. But Slayton said in a conversation with the News and former Giants teammate Bennie Fowler that he is simply looking for “somewhere where they’re striving to be competitive and that the goal is to win.”
Multiple sources expect that Slayton’s search for this, unsurprisingly, will bring his time with the Giants to an end.
Slayton’s consistent production, speed and deep-threat ability are generating “a lot of interest” in him within a unique receiver free agent class this season, he said.
He has caught 259 passes for 2,897 yards and 21 touchdowns for an average of 15.0 yards per reception. That includes four separate seasons of between 48-to-50 catches and 724-to-770 yards.
The Giants, believed to be priced out of Slayton based on their desired spending for wide receiver No. 2, have checked on wideouts like Chargers receiver Joshua Palmer as potential replacements, a source said.
Teams such as the L.A. Chargers, the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers, meanwhile, are among those viewed as likely Slayton suitors. The Steelers already tried to trade for him last spring before Slayton returned to New York for a sixth season.
“This receiver free agency class is very unique, and fortunately for me, I am in a niche spot of my ability combined with where I’m at in my career that makes me fairly valuable at this point in comparison to some of the other guys,” Slayton said.
Bengals receiver Tee Higgins would have been the obvious No. 1 free agent to set the market, for example, but now he has been franchise tagged. So outside of him, Slayton noted, “you have Amari Cooper out there, Hop [DeAndre Hopkins] and [Stefon] Diggs as some of the big-name guys at the top. But they’re all at a different phase of their career than I am. Because I am well within my prime.”
“And none of those guys can run as fast as you either,” Fowler added.
Slayton admitted the Giants’ pursuit of Matthew Stafford before the Super Bowl-winning quarterback returned to Los Angeles was intriguing and “definitely would’ve” been an interesting factor to impact his eventual decision.
“I mean Matthew Stafford, if you’re a receiver, if you just look at his track record of what he’s done for receiving careers, if you’ve got a chance to get with that guy you probably take it, because you’re probably gonna be set up to have a career year,” he said. “I’m pretty sure every receiving record he has or he threw. So obviously a guy like that, you don’t take that lightly.”
Regardless, however, Slayton said for the Giants, “whatever direction they choose to go in” at quarterback, “they have to full sell into that guy.
“And by that I mean the way that they structure things,” he said. “The way they call the offense. Whoever it is has to be poured into the way the Ravens poured into Lamar or the way the Chiefs have poured into Mahomes, the Bills have poured into Josh Allen.
“Lamar’s a really easy example because of his unique style of football, but if you look at the way the Ravens have played football since Lamar got there, it has been tailored to his skill set,” Slayton continued. “If you would have asked Lamar Jackson to come to the league and play like Peyton Manning, we would not know him to be who he is today. And that is the reality of any young quarterback you see succeed.”
Slayton basically was saying that for the Giants to successfully build around another quarterback — and for Slayton to be convinced they’re building it correctly — the team needs to throw its full confidence and process into its next franchise QB without reservation or exceptions.
“For the Giants, whoever they get, if they do a good job of fitting [Brian] Daboll and Kaf’s [offensive coordinator Mike Kafka’s] personalities and play styles and playcalling ways to whatever kid they get, I think their ceiling could be just as high as anybody,” Slayton said. “And for the Giants specifically, in order for me to be there, it would have to be that. I would have to know that ya’ll are gonna bring this rookie in or it could even be a Sam Darnold, it could be a vet, whoever it is …”
Slayton then was interrupted and asked: “Aaron Rodgers?”
“Maybe not that much of a vet,” Slayton said with a laugh. “But yo, Aaron Rodgers is what he is. There’s not really much molding of Aaron Rodgers at this point. He’s obviously an all-time great quarterback, great guy to play with. But I was referring to being able to mold a guy. Aaron Rodgers is Aaron Rodgers. You ain’t molding him.”
Slayton said “on paper” Rodgers to the Giants “sounds like a great idea” because of how talented Rodgers is.
“I have often said that Aaron Rodgers is the greatest person to ever throw the football,” Slayton said. “In my opinion, I think there’s never been a better thrower of the ball — until, obviously, probably Mr. [Patrick] Mahomes will pass him. But strictly throwing the ball, I don’t think the game of football saw a better thrower.”
The veteran receiver did say, however, that the Giants’ receiver room is extremely young. So adding Rodgers to the Giants would require some patience on the QB’s part with the receivers’ acclimation to their new, four-time MVP passer.
“You watch what transpired with the Jets, and it makes sense [that the Giants might sign Rodgers] because at this stage of his career he knows he can get himself to be great with whatever time he needs,” Slayton said. “But the reality with the Giants is they have Malik [Nabers] going into his second year, if I were to be back there, Wan’Dale [Robinson] going into his fourth year, Jalin [Hyatt], young guys. And they would need time.
“They would need OTAs, they would need camp reps, they would need to get on the same page with him,” he continued. “And if the Giants were to do that, I would think there would have to be an understanding that he has to be willing to help bring these guys along. He can’t come in there and expect them to be like Davante [Adams] and be a proven product and finished product and be ready to go. If that was the route for them to take, it would have to be with that understanding in order for it to be successful.”
Whoever the Giants start at quarterback in 2025, of course, probably won’t be throwing to Slayton.
In a league with increasingly fast defenses and tight margins, Slayton said the feedback he’s getting is that his big play ability is needed as much as ever.
“When you look at that, my ability to stretch the field becomes more valuable because that leads to shorter drives, one-play touchdowns. You need chunk plays to score in this league,” Slayton said. “We know we have a lot of interest out there. And when free agency opens up, we’ll have a lot of different conversations to have with a lot of different people.”
