Tag: Darius Slayton

Studs and duds from Giants’ Week 11 win vs. Commanders

Here’s a look at the studs and duds (and studly duds) from a 31-19 win for the New York Giants against the Washington Commanders in Week 11.

The New York Giants headed down to Landover, Maryland on Sunday afternoon to take on the Washington Commanders, a team they traditionally play very well against.

Despite low expectations, the Giants again put on their hard hat and went to work against their long-time NFC East rivals. The defense, in particular, stepped up to the plate and rebounded after a humiliating display in Week 10 against the Dallas Cowboys.

Wink Martindale’s crew recorded four sacks and forced five of the six turnovers on the game, including a game-sealing pick-6 by linebacker Isaiah Simmons with just seconds remaining.

On the other side of the ball, running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Tommy DeVito put enough points on the board to allow the D to keep the pressure on.

Here is a look at some of the studs and duds (and studly duds) from the Week 11 win.

5 impact Giants from 2022 who have vanished in 2023

The 2022 New York Giants surprised the football world by picking up a playoff victory but these 5 impacts players have vanished in 2023.

The New York Giants came into the 2023 season with high hopes after experiencing their first playoff appearance since 2016 last season.

Those hopes have been dashed — and then some — as the Giants have opened the 2023 season with a 2-8 record and are on course to have one of their worst seasons in franchise history.

That didn’t happen in a vacuum. Injuries, poor coaching and personnel choices, and yes, player underperformance, have all contributed to the club’s rapid demise.

Here are five players who contributed heavily in 2022 that have ‘vanished’ this season.

Infighting, sideline tantrums a microcosm of Giants’ lost season

The New York Giants are crumbling before your eyes with infighting and sideline tantrums becoming a weekly norm for the boys in blue.

In what has become an all-too-common theme for the 2023 New York Giants, infighting and sideline tantrums stole the show on Sunday afternoon in Arlington.

While the Giants were being demolished, 49-17, on the field, all eyes were on what was happening away from the field. That’s where head coach Brian Daboll continued to dress down his players while they fought with each other.

A week removed from safety Xavier McKinney throwing the coaching staff under the bus by claiming they don’t listen to team captains, the wheels completely came off in Week 10.

There was the usual Daboll meltdown, this time aimed at quarterback Tommy DeVito and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale — the latter of which continued through halftime.

After the game, Daboll downplayed his heated conversation with Martindale.

“We talk a lot throughout the game. Probably going into half, kind of some things we wanted to get worked on, things we want to do, but I have conversations with all those guys,” Daboll told reporters. “Normal stuff during a game.”

Normal for these Giants, sure.

But Daboll’s interactions with DeVito and Martindale aside, FOX cameras also caught a very heated exchange between wide receivers Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard, which apparently began with wide receivers coach Mike Groh.

“Slaton and Shep, they weren’t getting into it. Little stuff during the game. Not a big deal,” Daboll said, suggesting that you should not trust your lying eyes.

“I don’t know what the cameras caught, I’m sure it probably looked combative to me and him but it wasn’t in the moment,” Slayton said of his tiff with Groh, via the New York Post. “I was just already worked up so I was talking emotionally. At that point we weren’t arguing back and forth, we were talking about the same thing, spiritedly.

“I just have to manage my emotions a little bit better in those scenarios.”

That “spirited” conversation then spilled over onto the aforementioned Shepard.

“Just trying to motivate him to keep on going,” Shepard said. “It’s frustrating, obviously, you look at the scoreboard and how the game went down. I was just trying to motivate him to keep on going and fighting.

“Listen, that is like my brother, like my mother’s kids. It was straight me motivating him to go out there, that’s the honest truth.”

Slayton expressed love and appreciation for Shepard, reminding reporters that the two are close friends off the field. But then there was also running back Saquon Barkley, who appeared to have a few choice words for Daboll toward the end of the first half.

Again, like the others, Barkley attempted to sweep that under the rug.

“There was no argument, nothing like that,” Barkley said. “It happens. It’s football.”

So, there you have it. All of that unusual and clearly not normal screaming and arguing on the sideline is common for every team. Had FOX cameras shown the Cowboys sideline, it would have been exactly the same, right? The Giants aren’t crumbling, they’ll tell you — it’s just an incorrect outside perception.

And since that’s the case in their minds, surely their other players would have no problems discussing it after the game, right?

Well, not so much. McKinney declined to speak with reporters a week removed from wanting to say a whole lot, but he wasn’t the only one. Defensive tackle and team captain, Dexter Lawrence, also refused to speak with the media. As did veteran defensive lineman Jihad Ward, although he promised a little venting in the near future.

“I’m going to talk to you, just not today. I’m going to speak my mind. I’ll let you know,” Ward said, via the New York Post.

That should be fun.

Lawrence, meanwhile, addressed his refusal to meet with reporting noting that it was his birthday and he had family waiting.

The Giants can say whatever they want but it’s clear to everyone watching that this group has crumbled. The plane is off the runway and the sideline exchanges are becoming more and more intense by the week. The team is infected with a losing mentality and since they can’t beat anyone on the field, they’ve resorted to beating each other off of it.

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Giants’ Darius Slayton devastated over Daniel Jones injury

New York Giants WR Darius Slayton is devastated over the loss of QB Daniel Jones, admitting it’s a “personal” thing for him.

The disappointing 2023 season for New York Giants quarterback and captain, Daniel Jones, came to an end on Sunday when he suffered a torn ACL.

The injury leaves many questions about the future of the Giants’ quarterback just 10 months after leading the team to their first postseason victory in about a decade.

The loss of Jones will also have an impact on the locker room.

It’s well-documented that wide receiver Darius Slayton is an avid supporter of Jones and he feels the loss of the quarterback is devastating.

“It’s pretty disappointing,” Slayton told reporters on Monday. “You don’t ever want to see any of your teammates go down but for me personally, being here my whole career with DJ and kind of just the natural connection a receiver and quarterback have. Obviously, for me, I think it’s a bit personal.

“He’s a competitor, you know? Even though we didn’t know until this morning that he officially tore his ACL but those moments as a player, obviously, the thought goes through your head and the first emotion is devastation. We all work extremely hard to make the best out of the 17 opportunities we get every year to play the game we love and having that slip away is not easy for any of us to deal with. He’s a very resilient person, a very strong individual — but he’s also not alone in this. We’ll have his back, we’ll support him and be with him through this process.”

Slayton and Jones were, of course, both selected by the Giants in the 2019 NFL draft and have had a connection from the jump. In fact, Jones was the reason Slayton re-signed with Big Blue in the offseason as he expressed a desire to play his entire career with DJ.

Slayton knows some are happy that Jones is injured and his Giants career is now in doubt, but the wide receiver says that won’t slow either of them down.

“You can’t control what people say. Quite frankly, people have been trying to get myself and him and multiple others out of here since we’ve been here,” he said. “That hasn’t stopped us before and it won’t stop us now.

“Like I said earlier, he’s a resilient human being, he’s a good football player and at the end of the day, he’ll be back healthy again one day and he’ll be back playing pro football somewhere, hopefully here, and I look forward to that day.”

Time will tell what the future holds for Jones but until that decision is made (and even beyond), Slayton will have DJ’s back.

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Why the New York Giants are better with Tyrod Taylor than Daniel Jones

The New York Giants have a good quarterback problem in that backup Tyrod Taylor is decidedly outplaying starter Daniel Jones. It’s time to recognize it.

Before the 2023 season began, the New York Giants signed quarterback Daniel Jones to a four-year, $160 million contract extension with $82 million guaranteed. This happened while backup Tyrod Taylor was entering the second year of his two-year, $11 million contract signed in 2022, with $8.2 million.

As the 2023 season began, there were few negative thoughts about the Jones transaction. But in Jones’ second year in Brian Daboll’s offense, he’s regressed pretty significantly — this season, he ranks dead last among all quarterbacks in DYAR (-483), and only Las Vegas Raiders fourth-round rookie Aidan O’Connell has a lower DVOA (-54.8%) than Jones’ 54.4%. Jones has missed the Giants’ last two games with a neck injury, and Taylor, the veteran journeyman who’s currently with his fifth NFL team since the Baltimore Ravens selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 draft, has been the starter.

With that, we now have enough of a sample size to make a somewhat definitive statement:

The Giants’ passing game is just better with Tyrod Taylor than it is with Daniel Jones. Let’s start with the metrics.

Taylor ranks 15th in DYAR among quarterbacks (129), and ninth in DVOA (12.9%). He’s ahead of Justin Herbert, Kirk Cousins, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, and Matthew Stafford in DVOA.

The head-to-head comparisons between Taylor and Jones are pretty definitive in Taylor’s favor no matter how you chop them up.

On throws of 0-9 air yards:

Jones — 65 of 82 for 482 yards, one touchdown, four interceptions, two turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 74.9.
Taylor — 32 of 42 for 302 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, no turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 103.5.

On throws of 10-19 air yards:

Jones — 12 of 24 for 225 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, three turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 62.0.
Taylor — 5 of 8 for 77 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, no turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 133.9.

On throws of 20+ air yards:

Jones — 2 of 9 for 89 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, no turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 68.3.
Taylor — 5 of 10 for 160 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, no turnover-worthy throws, and a passer rating of 95.8.

Right now, there’s no absolute statement from the team regarding Jones’ status for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets and their impressive defense, but based on the metrics and the tape, were I Brian Daboll, I might start Taylor regardless of Jones’ health. Because there’s no question whatsoever that he’s been the better quarterback than the guy with 10 times his guaranteed money.

Let’s go to the tape and dive into why Taylor has been so impressive — and why the Giants have an interesting quarterback story all of a sudden.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, FTN, and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise indicated). 

11 WRs Chiefs could target at the trade deadline

Could the #Chiefs target any of these 11 receivers at the trade deadline?

The Kansas City Chiefs have a clear need to add another wide receiver to their roster, even after trading for two-time Super Bowl champion Mecole Hardman earlier this week.

Hardman is likely to be utilized as a gadget player, taking jet sweeps and quick screens in Andy Reid’s innovative offense. His value in the passing game will lie in his ability to be a field-stretcher that keeps opposing defenses honest and opens up room for guys like Travis Kelce and Skyy Moore over the middle.

While Kansas City may be content with their move for Hardman, the possibilities for additions at wide receiver may prove to be too enticing for Brett Veach to pass up on as he looks to shepherd the Chiefs to another Super Bowl victory.

Here are a few options that Veach could explore bringing in for Patrick Mahomes before  The NFL trade deadline passes on October 31:

Auburn in the NFL: Week 6 Recap

Jamel Dean returns, Darius Slayton totals 69 yards, Jamien Sherwood and the Jets upset the Eagles, and Jonathan Jones goes down with another injury.

The NFL season is now a third of the way over and each week throughout the season, Auburn Wire will take a look at some of the most notable performances from Auburn Alumni across the League.

It was a very quiet week for former Tigers, but there were some interesting storylines that stood out this week, including [autotag]Jamel Dean[/autotag]’s return from injury, [autotag]Darius Slayton[/autotag] clicking with his second-string quarterback, Jonathan Jones re-injuring himself, and Jamien Sherwood[autotag] helping the Jets upset the undefeated Eagles.[/autotag]

Here is a look at several headlines from Week 6 that feature Auburn’s top NFL players.

7 players Giants should consider trading at the deadline

The NFL trade deadline is just around the corner and as likely sellers, the New York Giants should consider trading these 7 players.

The New York Giants have come out of the gate this season with a 1-5 record, which means co-owner John Mara will once again face the indignity of sitting through another December of meaningless football.

The Giants’ chances of qualifying for the postseason is a whopping 2 percent. It would take a miracle for them to even get close to a .500 record this season.

Since they can’t beat Dallas or Philadelphia, whom they have three remaining games with, that would put them at eight losses even if they won their other remaining games.

Do you see miracles coming out of this team? If you do, then power to you. The real course of action here is for general manager Joe Schoen to identify his core and attempt to deal as many non-core pieces as possible by the October 31 NFL trading deadline.

Here are seven trade candidates they may consider.

Endzone again eludes Giants in 14-9 loss to Bills

The New York Giants failed to score from the 1-yard line to end each half on Sunday, ultimately falling to the Buffalo Bills, 14-9.

The New York Giants faced off against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York on Sunday Night Football in Week 6 of the 2023 NFL season.

It was the Giants’ fourth prime-time game of this young season.

The Giants came into the game 0-3 in prime time, 1-4 overall, and the only NFL team that had yet to run an offensive play with the lead this season.

Some of that changed on Sunday night, but the Giants still couldn’t overcome the injuries and adversity enough to pull out a win.

But it wasn’t from a lack of trying.

What we learned from Giants’ 24-3 loss to Seahawks

The New York Giants fell to the Seattle Seahawks, 24-3, in Week 4 and here’s some of what we learned from that game.

The New York Giants fell to 1-3 on the season after completely disintegrating on Monday night at MetLife Stadium versus the Seattle Seahawks.

The score was 24-3 but that didn’t matter. You didn’t need a scoreboard to figure out that the Giants are a complete mess of a team in which no unit is functioning at an acceptable level.

Here are four things we learned on Monday night.