Darius Slayton had a pretty good start to the 2020 NFL season and is quickly become the New York Giants top receiving threat. The former Auburn receiver caught six passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns, including a 41-yard score in the second quarter.
Per the NY Post, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones might start looking Slayton’s way even more often.
Maybe the Giants have a No. 1 receiver after all.
Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate and Darius Slayton were billed as one of the NFL’s most dangerous trios, but a consistent criticism was the group lacked a true game-breaker. Some forward-looking 2021 mock drafts even suggest the Giants will go shopping for a receiver with their first-round pick.
Slayton — and the re-emergence of many more pressing needs — could change that thinking over the next three months.
Picking up where he left off as a rookie, Slayton had six catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-16 season-opening loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at MetLife Stadium on Monday. The top Giants’ highlight of the night was a 41-yard scoring strike when quarterback Daniel Jones had time and room to step up in the pocket and find Slayton on a well-run post route.
With every game that goes by, the former fifth-rounder looks more and more like the Giants’ biggest draft steal of the three-year tenure of general manager Dave Gettleman — and maybe further back to the turn of the decade when Super Bowl trophies were in the cards.
“Darius did a good job tonight, he’s had a good camp and he came in ready to go,” Jones said. “I certainly have a lot of faith in him.”
Slayton finished his rookie season in 2019 with 48 catches for 740 yards and eight touchdowns, quickly becoming one of Jones’ targets as the two rookies built a rapport.