This Pending Giants UFA Considered Among Most Underrated

The NFL’s annual free agency period is more than just a big signing frenzy led by cap-heavy teams searching for talent. It marks the first important milestone of the offseason.

More importantly, it presents all 32 teams with an early opportunity to reevaluate their rosters and determine which impending names in their ranks are worth keeping to help shift the balance of power in the league for the following season.

That is no different for the New York Giants, except that they are arguably one of the game’s neediest teams entering a pivotal moment for the franchise.

Their biggest question mark, stealing most of the spotlight, has been the quarterback's room, which needs filling. This is followed by multiple weaknesses on both sides of the ball, notably the offensive line and secondary.

Beyond that, many don’t realize that the Giants could have a sneaky hole develop in the wide receiving corps in just about a month.

They have three pass catchers set to hit the open market on March 10 when the legal tampering window begins, and the quiet yet important headliner in that mix is the veteran Darius Slayton.

Despite all the changes that have swept through the organization in recent years, Slayton, the Giants’ 2019 fifth-round out of Auburn, has been one of the rare signs of consistency within their offensive huddle.

If the two sides can’t agree on a new deal soon, he could be available to other suitors willing to pay more for his services.

While Slayton’s immediate future hasn’t been on the minds of many who are following how the Giants conduct their offseason plan, there are those like Pro Football Focus’s Zoltán Buday who believe the loss would be one of the most underrated given what Slayton has meant to their offensive success.

“Even though the Giants kept drafting and signing wide receivers, Slayton never got phased out of New York’s offense and always earned an opportunity for himself. The former fifth-round pick has played at least 500 snaps in all six of his NFL seasons, including more than 800 in three of the past four years,” Buday noted.

“Admittedly, he had one of his worst seasons in a contract year, although bad quarterback play was the main culprit…Before this past season, Slayton proved repeatedly that he could be one of the better WR3s in the league — or even a WR2.”

When looking at his numbers over six seasons, it is hard to debate how much worse the Giants' aerial offense would have been in some years without Slayton. It started in his rookie season, when he led the position group with 48 receptions for 740 yards and eight touchdowns, helping push the Giants into the top five passing touchdown teams in the NFL.

Short of the 2022 campaign, when they went to the second round of the postseason, the Giants' mediocre run on offense never escaped the doldrums of the league in major passing statistics. Still, the obstacles never took a serious toll on Slayton’s output.

In the next four seasons, he tallied at least 46 receptions for 700+ yards and an average haul of 15+ yards three times, which hadn’t been done by any other receiver in that same span.

Despite the team’s failed attempts to recruit talented receivers to join Slayton and make life easier for Daniel Jones, Slayton never failed to rise from the heap as a reliable option when crucial yardage was needed.

He had never missed more than three games in his tenure with the Giants, leading the team in receiving production four times and being among the top 25 deep-threat players before Malik Nabers entered the fold.

Not to mention, Slayton has been one of the shining examples of class and leadership to grace the Giants' locker room during their period of turmoil.

If there has ever been a most obvious display of how teams can find gems in the later rounds of the draft, Slayton has been clear proof as a fifth-round selection that didn’t come in with more expectations than being a flier at the time.

New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) celebrates with his teammates after scoring a touchdown during a game between New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. | Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Giants now find themselves in a predicament where they don’t have many guys with these elements in their receiving corps after a year where they ranked 28th in passing yards and 32nd in touchdowns. If Slayton chooses to depart for the greater payday in another city, it could create a problem that most likely won’t be addressed if not through the free agent portal.

Nabers took over Slayton’s throne as the top pass catcher in the Giants’ huddle with 1,204 yards and seven scores that outpaced his teammate by over 600 yards and five touchdowns, but he is bound to gain more attention in his second season.

Outside those two players, the Giants struggled to regularly incorporate Wan’Dale Robinson, Jaylin Hyatt, and rookie tight end Theo Johnson.

Robinson was the only player to finish above 500 yards and three scores as a slot weapon, and the others failed to eclipse 40 yards per game with limited touches, which was partly due to inferior quarterback play.

The Giants expect to figure out some solution to the quarterback position between free agency and the draft in April. They will especially need an experienced group of targets for either gunslinger to throw to, especially to break the ice of their red zone woes, which showed a 43.2% success rate this fall and was dead last in the league.

That is another element that makes Slayton so undervalued in the Giants' offensive operation that he finds ways to show up and produce for the scoreboard no matter who is slinging the ball, with 3,897 yards and 21 touchdowns on his resume with five different arms to his name.

As Buday opined, those are solid numbers for a second or third wideout option.

The evidence of forming trust and results for the position are all laid out, but the question separating an extended partnership is whether the Giants want to pay Slayton more than he saw on his previous deals.

He signed a two-year, $12 million contract before the 2023 season that paid him a guaranteed share of $4.9 million at signing.

Slayton sought another amendment to his deal before the 2024 season but was shot down. He only received a few contract incentives added afterward to avoid an extended absence at team OTA’s last spring.

He has earned just shy of $16 million in his career, but he put up enough numbers to entice other teams to try to poach him and elevate their passing attack.

The Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll regime has been committed to positional and market value and how that plays into their signing decisions. That won’t be any different for Slayton, as wide receiver isn’t at the top of the list.

At the end of the day, Slayton, who could command a three-year, $15.8 million deal from any team per Spotrac, is an asset that the Giants should retain.

This Pending Giants UFA Considered Among Most Underrated

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