Darius Slayton Burdens Blame For Giants' Offensive Woes

"Ultimately, the only thing you can do to change that or prevent that is to change the product that you're putting out there on the field and put a good product out there, and they'll quickly turn from boos to cheers."

Slayton, well-versed in metropolitan passing issues as the longest-tenured offensive Giant, accepted blame for the yardage and scoring woes in his post-mortem statements on Monday on behalf of his position group, claiming that they haven't done enough to alleviate the passing stress.

"We weren't perfect," Slayton said of his post-film impressions. "We had some plays, which I specifically think of myself, a play that I left out there, and kind of as a receiver corps.

"Every game is kind of like that, though. You look back and you're like, ' We could have been better here or there. ' Still, offense is a collective thing, and definitely as a receiving core, you try to do everything in your power to help the quarterback succeed. We definitely had our share in some of that, not helping him to the best of our ability."

With the New York offense mostly limited to fleeting Cam Skattebo breakouts on Sunday, Slayton was the Giants' top listed receiver, earning 30 yards on four catches. At the same time, Malik Nabers and Wan'Dale Robinson respectively struggled to capitalize on their similar career days in Arlington. He has 91 yards over the past two weeks after his blank slate in the opener against Washington.

Metropolitan longevity is a blessing and a curse in both blue and green instances these days: stationed in the tri-state area since 2019, Slayton has made but one visit to the professional postseason, and a second hardly seems to be on the horizon after the Giants dropped each of their first three.

With the season already hitting a point of no postseason return, part of the boos stems from the desire to see the offensive torch officially passed onto Dart when there's not much to lose. 

It's familiar territory for Slayton, who, as a rare holdover from the Eli Manning era, played witness to the transfer of power from the two-time Super Bowl champion to Daniel Jones during their shared rookie season.

Recalling that the Giants' relationship with Jones—one of the most pleasant surprises of the 2025 season in Indianapolis, provided you're not also a Giants fan—"didn't end amicably," Slayton cautioned that sometimes change isn’t always for the better.

The freshman Jones was promoted over Manning just three games into the 2019 season, kickstarting a career that few, if any, Big Blue fans remember fondly. 

In contrast, Sunday's opponent, Patrick Mahomes, sat for almost all of his rookie season before kicking off his historic tenure at the helm of the Chiefs' offense. The precedent, Slayton believes, allows the Giants to be patient and extend some more trust in the embattled Wilson.

"A lot of people have a lot of reasons for that, but probably some of that was the fact that he was thrown in the fire Week 3 my rookie year and was asked to go out there and try to win football games, while you're still trying to figure the game out," Slayton said. 

"We just played a guy (Sunday) who didn't play at all his rookie year, and he's probably going to go down as the greatest player ever. So, if he can benefit from waiting and learning, anybody can.

"It's not just him: (Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback) Lamar Jackson waited. A lot of quarterbacks in this league, you know, they took their time. They had a chance to grow, had a chance to learn and watch,” he continued.

“Ultimately, I want Jaxson Dart to be a perennial All-Pro, Pro Bowl, Super Bowl-winning quarterback one day, and (Chiefs head coach) Andy Reid thought it worked, and they've been to a few Super Bowls in his time. So why not let (Dart) wait while he can wait?"