Why Giants held onto WR Darius Slayton after surprising report

Before it was learned that Odell Beckham Jr. had made the New York Giants' initial 53-man roster, a report surprisingly revealed that fellow veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton was not a lock to make the squad. 

Slayton ended the weekend still with the team that drafted him back in 2019. Giants reporter Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News shared why the club didn't part ways with Slayton.

Cutting Darius Slayton would have been a bad business decision for the Giants

"The reality is that cutting Slayton would be much more expensive for the Giants than trading him," Leonard wrote. "Cutting Slayton would save only $3.1M against this year’s salary cap and incur a $12.7M dead cap hit on the books...Trading him, on the other hand, would save $12.9M in cap space and leave only a $3M dead cap hit."

Slayton signed a three-year contract to stay with the Giants in March 2025 when Brian Daboll was serving as the team's head coach. The Giants fired Daboll last fall, and ESPN stats show that Slayton finished the campaign ranked third on the team with 37 receptions and second with 538 receiving yards. Across 14 games, he caught a single touchdown. 

Why Giants may, may not trade Darius Slayton

The surfacing of the previously-mentioned Slayton report could lead one to believe that the Giants would trade the 29-year-old for what is deemed to be a good price. However, Big Blue was seen as being weak at wide receiver before Calvin Austin III suffered a torn ACL during a practice. Thus, now may not be a great time for the Giants to take a weapon away from quarterback Jaxson Dart. 

That said, Leonard noted that "Slayton seemed to become an afterthought in quarterback progressions and targets and in usage" late in training camp. Leonard also added that "Slayton could even be seen reacting when Jameis Winston targeted Beckham in the end zone [against the Miami Dolphins on Aug. 22] when Slayton won his route on the other side of the field."

Much has been written about how first-year head coach John Harbaugh is working to change the Giants' culture. NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated said that Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen "have gotten on the same page...to find players that would line up with them philosophically to the point where they’d want what the coaches do intuitively." 

One wonders if Harbaugh feels Slayton no longer lines up with the Giants "philosophically" regarding this stage of the franchise's roster restructuring.