Tag: Darius Slayton

Giants’ Darius Slayton: ‘I want to bash my head into the wall’

New York Giants WR Darius Slayton was about as candid as it gets following Monday night’s loss, saying he wants to bash his head into a wall.

Following a 24-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night, which dropped the team to 1-3 on the season, many New York Giants fans wanted to bash their heads into the wall.

As it turns out, they’re not alone.

A completely dejected Darius Slayton stood at his locker in the wee hours of the morning struggling to find answers for what had gone wrong. He was candid in his responses and commiserated with the fans.

“Right now, I want to bash my head into the wall,” Slayton told reporters after the game. “I haven’t lost any belief. We still have talented players. We have players that are capable and that’s the frustrating thing. We have capable players that just aren’t doing what we need to do.

“It’d be a different thing if everybody just sucked. Then it’d be like, ‘All right, well, there’s no hope.’ But we have talented players that are capable of doing it and we’ve just got to do it.”

While Slayton was looking to bash his head into the wall, veteran cornerback Adoree’ Jackson sounded like someone who was looking for a way out.

“Man, honestly we got our (expletive) whooped,” Jackson told NJ Advance Media. “That’s the only thing that happened. I can’t even describe it no other way. We just lost. And that’s what we’ve been doing.

“I’m frustrated. Just as mad as y’all are writing about this (expletive), I’m frustrated being in this (expletive).”

Jackson did say he believes the team will turn it around before saying they have to turn it around.

Safety Xavier McKinney, meanwhile, sees the writing on the wall. He realizes the Giants aren’t very far off from having the entire season go off the rails, leading to another massive overhaul — something that has become all too familiar in East Rutherford over the past decade.

“It could definitely go sideways,” McKinney said. “I’ve been a part of a team where it has gone sideways. I do understand this league, it’s tough and you’ve got to be able to respond quickly or it could go south.”

Like Slayton and Jackson, McKinney then expressed faith that the team can turn it around but they really sound like men who are simply trying to convince themselves it’s not as bad as it actually is.

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Mike Kafka: Giants’ play-calling process remains the same

New York Giants OC Mike Kafka says the team’s play-calling process hasn’t changed and he’s still the man in charge of the offense.

For the better part of the past two weeks, rumor and speculation have swirled over who is calling offensive plays for the New York Giants.

After a 40-0 drubbing by the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 and falling behind the Arizona Cardinals, 20-0, by halftime of Week 2, the Giants suddenly erupted. They scored 31 second-half points to stun the Cards, completing the team’s biggest comeback since the 1940s.

Almost immediately, it was assumed that head coach Brian Daboll had taken over the reins from offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. And in the eyes of some, there was evidence to support that theory.

But Daboll rejected it and insisted that Kafka was still calling the plays.

“Nope,” Daboll said bluntly after the Cards game when asked if he called plays in the second half. “We always communicate like that. I always have a sheet with me. But Mike (Kafka) did a fantastic job. I communicate with Mike, I communicate with (Thomas McGaughey), I communicate with Wink (Martindale). So the offensive staff did a great job. Moved the ball, scored points. Did their job.”

Quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Darius Slayton have also gone on record stating that Kafka is calling plays, but that still wasn’t enough to sway some skeptics.

On Friday, for the first time since the Cardinals game, Kafka met with reporters and was able to address these rumors.

“No, our process has been the same,” Kafka said when asked if Daboll got involved in play-calling during the Cardinals game. “You guys are doing your job. You guys are trying to ask questions, I don’t resent that at all. Fair question but process has been the same.”

So, why has Daboll been spotted holding the offensive play sheet? Well, Kafka had an answer for that, too.

“I think he was just trying to talk into the microphone without anyone reading his lips, but I don’t want to speak for Dabs,” Kafka said. “I mean, we communicate throughout every series, every drive, throughout the game, what we like, what we don’t like. Again, the process hasn’t changed from last year to this year.”

Daboll has held the play sheet throughout the season and even prior to the Cardinals game, so that does damage the ongoing theories about the team’s play-caller. Still, don’t expect the speculation to end here — people are having too much fun with it.

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Fantasy Football: Potential bargains, must-plays from Giants-Seahawks game

Here’s a look at some potential bargains for daily fantasy from the New York Giants-Seattle Seahawks Week 4 game on Monday night.

The New York Giants (1-2) will host the Seattle Seahawks (2-1) on Monday Night Football in Week 4 in a matchup of NFC playoff teams from last season.

There’s a number of fantasy picks to choose from in this game. Here are four.

Giants’ Darius Slayton says Mike Kafka is still calling plays

New York Giants WR Darius Slayton heard the rumors and speculation but still believes, to his knowledge, that Mike Kafka is calling plays.

Who is calling plays for the New York Giants? Is it head coach Brian Daboll or is it offensive coordinator Mike Kafka?

That question arose after the team’s comeback victory against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2 when their offense completely changed after halftime. Some argued that Daboll must have assumed the play-calling duties.

Despite the theories, Daboll insists that nothing changed and that Kafka was still calling the plays.

“Nope,” Daboll said bluntly when asked if he called plays in Week 2. “We always communicate like that. I always have a sheet with me. But Mike (Kafka) did a fantastic job. I communicate with Mike, I communicate with (Thomas McGaughey), I communicate with Wink (Martindale). So the offensive staff did a great job. Moved the ball, scored points. Did their job.”

Quarterback Daniel Jones also confirmed the plays were still coming in from Kafka but that hasn’t slowed the debate. Even as the Giants fell to the San Francisco 49ers, 30-12, on Thursday night, the theories persisted.

On Friday, during an appearance on Up & Adams, wide receiver Darius Slayton was asked about the speculation and who is currently calling plays on offense.

“DJ’s got the mic in his helmet. I don’t know who’s talking to him but as far as I know, Kafka calls the plays and always has called the plays,” Slayton said. “To the extent of my knowledge, he’s still currently calling the plays.

“Obviously, you see the stuff people say and the rumors and all of that but, at the end of the day, to my knowledge, I know Kaf calls the plays.”

Daboll has said it, Jones has said and now Slayton is saying it, but people are still going to question who’s calling plays. Kafka will have the opportunity to address the rumors next week during his press conference.

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Auburn in the NFL: Week 2 Recap

Auburn football alumni made waves in week two of the NFL season.

Each week throughout the NFL season, Auburn Wire will take a look at some of the most notable performances from Auburn Alumni across the League.

It was rather quiet week two of the season following an eventful week one, but there were still some notable performances that deserve some recognition.

Here is a look at several week two headlines from Auburn’s top NFL players.

Giants report card: How we graded Big Blue in Week 2 win

The New York Giants defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 31-28, in Week 2 and the Giants Wire team grades reflect that comeback performance.

The New York Giants had a miraculous comeback win against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon.

New York picked up a much-needed win in Glendale in Week 2. They defeated the Cardinals, 31-28, in what was one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Giants in this win.

Giants’ Darius Slayton: There were too many ‘my bads’ in Week 1

New York Giants WR Darius Slayton said too many individual mistakes led to a 40-0 shellacking at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys.

The New York Giants were ambushed by the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night, losing 40-0. It was the third-largest shutout loss in the 99-year history of the franchise.

So, what happened?

To the naked eye, the Cowboys were much faster than the Giants and obviously more prepared. They were also more physical and aggressive.

It was a loss of mass proportions that have even the most staunch Giants supporters wondering if they are in for a step back this season rather than a step forward.

Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton has seen his share of losing but nothing to this degree. The Giants had just 63 net yards passing and on Monday, he was asked how the wide receiver unit reacted to their substandard performance.

“I think the first thing when you’re watching film when you watch plays individually it’s easy to look at this play and be like, ‘This guy didn’t do that or this guy didn’t do this or I didn’t do this or that,’ and kind of the overarching thing that you come to is that we all had one too many ‘my bads,'” he told reporters on Monday.

“Ultimately, when you’re trying to win a football game, you can’t have everybody having multiple ‘my bads’ or, ‘I would’ve done this different, I would’ve done that different,’ so, I’d probably say that was just the main thing. We had too much of that.”

As Elvis Presley would say, “A little less conversation and a lot more action” is what is needed. How they’ll fix it is the bigger issue.

With the offensive line apparently not ready for prime time (again), the Giants’ offense may not reach their full potential this year.

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Giants’ Darius Slayton still taking things one day at a time

After a rollercoaster 2022 season, New York Giants WR Darius Slayton says he’s still taking things one day at a time here in 2023.

The New York Giants re-signed wide receiver Darius Slayton to a two-year, $12 million deal this offseason, a move that surprised some after a rocky 2022 campaign.

Slayton, the Giants’ top receiver in three of his four seasons with the team dating back to 2019, was wisely retained by general manager Joe Schoen even though he was — for a time — in the doghouse and on the outs.

Then, the Giants suffered multiple injuries at wide receiver last year and they were forced to turn to Slayton. He responded with another solid performance.

The former fifth-round pick out of Auburn came into the league along with quarterback Daniel Jones and the two have formed a bond that the coaches and front office cannot ignore. If they are going to commit to Jones, they might as well keep his favorite target around, too.

One thing Slayton has not been able to accomplish is to gain 1,000 receiving yards in a season. Three times he racked up over 700 yards but now he could be in line for bigger things.

In his media session on Monday, Slayton downplayed whether a big statistical year would mean more now that the stakes for the Giants are higher.

“I think every receiver would love to be able to say, one day when I retire, I’m old and my knees don’t work anymore, you know I can tell my kids I had a 1,000-yard NFL season at one point,” Slayton said. “It’s a nice benchmark to have, but obviously, to get there you got to start with game one first, so I just take it one week, one day at a time.”

He’ll have a lot more competition for targets this season with a full receiver room and tight end Darren Waller in the fold. Let’s not forget that Saquon Barkley will see plenty of touches in the passing game as well. The Giants suddenly have a potent offense.

The offense in general should be better. Slayton outlined some of the new additions who will help take the Giants to the next level.

“On offense, we’ve got Jalin (Hyatt), Darren (Waller), and Eric Gray. Then (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.) whose had a really good camp for us up front, so I think they did a good job of accumulating talent and adding guys that would boost our team,” Slayton said.

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Auburn in the NFL: Preseason Update

There are a few interesting storylines surrounding Auburn Alumi in the NFL going into the 2023 season.

Each week throughout the NFL season, Auburn Wire will take a look at the some of the most notable performances from Auburn Alumi across the League.

Although the season doesn’t kick off for another nine days, there still are a multitude of interesting storylines with the preseason wrapped up and the infamous “cut day” behind us.

Here are some of the most interesting storylines surrounding Auburn players after week 3 of the preseason.

Giants have a problem at wide receiver and that’s a good thing

The New York Giants have more solid wide receivers than they have available spots, and that’s a good problem to have.

The New York Giants have a number of options at slot receiver this season, a situation made even more competitive after two veterans logged in solid showings Friday night in Detroit.

Cole Beasley caught all four of his targets for a total of 33 yards and Jamison Crowder reeled in both of his for 32 yards.

The Giants signed each veteran this offseason as insurance after the receiver cupboard ran bare last season due to injuries, forcing the team to sign players off the street.

One of the players they brought in last fall was Isaiah Hodgins, who provided the Giants with a huge boost down the stretch as they drove toward the playoffs.

On Friday night, Hodgins — a prospective starter on the outside — caught one pass for 13 yards to remind everyone that he’s still very much in the plans.

Head coach Brian Daboll put Hodgins in for 18 snaps in the game, some early on and then again later in the game.

“I thought it was good for him,” Daboll said. “He was a practice squad player for a while there and came on with us late, so I thought it was good to get him some reps early on with Tyrod (Taylor).”

The Giants’ wide receiver room is a very crowded one this summer and when the music stops on August 29 for final cuts there won’t be enough chairs. Several will be going home, or at the least, to the practice squad.

Sterling Shepard is back, along with Darius Slayton and Hodgins. They, along with third-rounder Jalin Hyatt and free agent Parris Campbell, are all shoe-ins to make the roster.

That leaves perhaps three open spots on the 53-man roster. With Beasley and Crowder stepping up, that number could be reduced to just one. Several players will have two games to make their cases.

Heralded rookie Bryce Ford-Wheaton did not have an impressive debut, failing to reel in any of his three targets and dropping a sure reception that hit him squarely in the chest.

The ever-reliable David Sills V made the most of his time, catching two passes for 36 yards, including one for a 22-yard gain. Sills is a long shot to make the team. The 27-year-old has been with the Giants since 2019, either on the active roster or the practice squad.

Kalil Pimpleton continues to play well, catching both of his chances for a total of 15 yards. He can also contribute on special teams as a returner.

Jaydon Mickens had a six-yard reception in the game, but he appears to be headed to the practice squad (at best).

Collin Johnson, who missed all of 2022 with an Achilles injury, left the game with a knee issue. The 6-foot-6 former Texas standout had been having a solid camp.

As of Saturday, Daboll did not have an updated status on Johnson’s injury.

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