Darius Slayton’s run with the Giants ended in a way that had been building for a while, and the final push came after a preseason that left little room for debate. Even with a three-year contract extension in hand, the veteran receiver’s place on the roster kept slipping until New York finally decided the money alone wasn’t enough to keep him.
The clearest explanation came from John Harbaugh, who was asked what he saw that convinced him the Giants were better off without Slayton. His answer pointed straight to what he valued most.
"I watch practice every day," he said. "This is a team that we're building going forward, so looking back on past stats is not the metric that we're using.
We're looking at what we're going to be going forward and the type of team we're going to be. Darius has been great, he's a great guy."
That’s the kind of response coaches give when they don’t want to say the quiet part out loud. But the message was hard to miss.
Slayton had an underwhelming preseason, and his role kept shrinking as camp wore on. He played meaningful snaps in all three preseason games, yet went two straight games without a target.
In the finale against the New York Jets, he was still on the field deep into the second quarter while most of the roster locks had already been shut down.
He came into camp with a chance to claim the WR2 job, but others kept moving past him. By the end of the preseason, it was obvious he wasn’t going to have a real role this year. Even with a receiver room that wasn’t exactly overflowing with options, there still wasn’t a spot for him.
Harbaugh also made it clear he doesn’t see this as the end for Slayton. "He's gonna be fine.
He's gonna land somewhere. He's gonna play football somewhere.
And we're gonna move forward. It's how football goes."
There should be interest elsewhere, too. The Kansas City Chiefs, the Las Vegas Raiders and the Miami Dolphins are all mentioned as teams that could use receiver help. However it shakes out, the Giants have already made their call and moved on.
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