After Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes landed an extension that could earn him more than $500 million over the course of a decade, contracts became a popular topic of conversation across the NFL.
That deal also led Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report to ponder the best value contracts for each team in the NFL. And when it came to the New York Giants, he settled one wide receiver Darius Slayton.
Slayton provided the Giants with something they didn’t previously have on the roster: an outside threat. Veterans Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard are more effective working out of the slot, whereas Slayton is a slightly bigger target (6’1″, 190 lbs.) with the ability to stretch the field and demand safety help.
As a rookie, Slayton led the Giants with 740 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
Compared to other receivers, those numbers aren’t overly impressive. However, the thought of Slayton’s continued development as New York’s WR1 without a salary-cap number over $1.02 million at any point during the next three seasons is exciting.
Listing Slayton as the Giants’ best value contract may be a bit of a cheat given that he’s entering the second year of a four-year rookie deal worth just over $2.75 million, but there’s also no denying his production in 2019 far outweighed his salary.
That’s the luxury teams have when they strike gold in the middle rounds. At the same time, if Slayton continues to improve and have an impact, it won’t be long before general manager Dave Gettleman & Co. consider extending his contract, which would boost those base salary numbers substantially.
Until then however, the Giants are getting an awful lot out of Slayton at a low cost.
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