Darius Slayton wasted little time introducing himself to the NFL during his rookie campaign. How does his impressive rookie year stack up to the rookie seasons of previous NY Giants greats?
Rookie wideout Darius Slayton was the perfect low-risk, high-reward prospect when he was taken in the 5th round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the NY Giants. The speedy playmaker out of Auburn averaged over 20 yards per catch in college, but concerns surrounding his drops and lack of production were red flags.
After missing most of the preseason and the first two games of the regular season with a hamstring injury, there was some warranted skepticism surrounding Slayton.
That skepticism didn’t last long once he made his NFL debut in week three vs the Buccaneers, where Slayton and fellow rookie quarterback Daniel Jones connected three times for 82 yards. The numbers weren’t head-turning, but the eye-test certainly was. Slayton was as fast as advertised and looked the part of a speedy, homerun hitter.
From that game on, Slayton didn’t miss a start and put together one of the most productive seasons of any rookie receiver in the NFL, tying Tennessee’s AJ Brown for most receiving touchdowns by a rookie with 8.
Only once the rest of the year was he held without a catch, which came in Week 16 vs Washington.
Overall, Slayton’s final stat line would have been above average for most NFL wideouts, let alone a 22-year old rookie who missed two games. He finished the season with 48 receptions, 740 yards, and 8 touchdowns, averaging over 15 yards per catch.
While it was just one year, the future looks promising for Slayton with the G-Men, and he proved to have all the tangibles and skills needed to grow into a #1 receiver for Daniel Jones.
There’s no doubt that Slayton’s impressive rookie season puts him in a prime position to take on a larger role within the New York Giants offense, but how does it stack up to the rookie campaigns of previous Giants greats?
Let’s take a look.
1. Darius Slayton (2019) vs Amani Toomer (1996)
Amani Toomer – that’s a name I haven’t said (or heard) in a while.
By and far an all-time Giants great and fan favorite, Toomer would play his entire 13-year NFL career with the G-Men and retire as the franchise’s leader in pass targets, receptions, yards, and receiving touchdowns.
Toomer amassed a career resume that included 668 receptions, 9,479 yards, and 54 receiving touchdowns, but after his rookie season you would have never guessed that.
Seeing action in only seven games, Toomer would record a total of one catch for 12 yards his rookie year. Obviously, Slayton’s rookie campaign doesn’t even compare in this case, but it also can be an example of how careers aren’t defined after one season.
Toomer’s numbers slightly increased over the next two seasons, but even if you added his stats from his first three seasons, they are still lower than Slayton’s rookie year (44 receptions, 635 yards, 6 touchdowns).
Now it wasn’t all Toomer’s fault, as he was taking passes from Dave Brown and Danny Kanell during those three years and was widely used and more productive in the special teams game. Once Kerry Collins got to town in 1999, Toomer would go on to record 5 straight 1,000-yard seasons.
One interesting note between these two is Toomer never amassed more than 8 receiving touchdowns in his career, a mark Slayton set his first season as a Giant. Of course there are a lot of factors that account for this, mainly being different styles of offense and types of receiver each are/were.
Nonetheless, it is a great reminder that a player’s career isn’t made or ruined because of one (or in this case three) seasons. But this does show Slayton is trending in a great direction when it comes to measuring up to one of the best to ever play for the NY Giants.
Advantage: Slayton
2. Darius Slayton (2019) vs Ike Hilliard (1997)
Ike Hilliard is one of the most underrated players in franchise history. After being taken with the No. 7 overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft out of Florida, his rookie season was cut short when he sprained an interspinous ligament between his sixth and seventh vertebrae. The injury required an 8th-month rehabilitation period.
Although his rookie season ended after just two receptions for 42 yards, Hilliard would bounce back in year two with 51 receptions and 715 yards, and in year three he would set career highs with 72 receptions, 996 yards, and 3 touchdowns.
Despite bruised lungs and a bruised sternum in 2000, Hilliard would notch 8 receiving touchdowns including a 10-catch, 155-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.
Obviously Slayton’s rookie season still hardly compares to Hilliards, but Ike would leave the NY Giants in the Top-10 of both career receptions and yards and is still No. 10 on the franchise’s receiving yards list today.
Hilliard was an underrated component of those late 90s, early 2000s teams and still produced despite constant injuries.
Advantage: Slayton
3. Darius Slayton (2019) vs Hakeem Nicks (2009)
By far the closest comparison we’ve seen to Slayton’s rookie season, Hakeem Nicks was considered one of the best receivers in the 2009 draft class and was taken with the 29th overall pick by the G-Men out of North Carolina.
After losing Plaxico Burress, the NY Giants were in need of a big-body receiver that could cause mismatches in the secondary, and that’s what they found in Nicks.
Slayton’s rookie numbers are almost identical to Nicks, who finished 2009 with 47 receptions, 790 yards, and 6 touchdowns.
Nicks and Slayton both played 14 games and each recorded two games with over 100-yards receiving.
Slayton posted 121-yards vs the Jets in Week 10 and a career-high 154-yards vs the Eagles in Week 14. Nicks tallied 114-yards in a Week 6 matchup with the Saints and 110-yards in a Week 14 game vs the Eagles as well.
Both were fairly consistent throughout their rookie campaigns in terms of production, with each recording just two games where they failed to record more than one catch. Slayton did have a 10-catch performance in his game vs the Jets while Nick’s season-high for receptions was 6 vs Carolina in Week 16.
One final note between these two rookie seasons is Slayton’s three multi-touchdown performances compared to none for Nicks, who hauled in a single receiving touchdown in six different games.
While it’s untold what Slayton’s career holds moving forward, we know what happened with Nicks. Over the next two seasons, he would light the league on fire with over 2,100 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns – including a handful of memorable moments during the 2011 Super Bowl run.
Unfortunately, Nicks’ career in the Meadowlands ended as fast as it started. After battling injuries and seeing a decline in production, Nicks would record just over 1,400 yards and 3 touchdowns in his final two seasons with the NY Giants before being released in 2014.
One of the most promising receivers from the 2009 draft class would retire after just seven years, scoring 24 of his 31 career touchdowns in his first three seasons.
Nicks is currently No. 9 on the franchise’s all-time receiving yards list with 4,676 yards and No. 10 in receptions with 318, marks that would take roughly six years for Slayton to surpass based on his rookie season numbers.
Advantage: Draw
4. Darius Slayton (2019) vs Victor Cruz (2010)
Cruuuuuuuuuuuz — that will never get old.
Unfortunately for Victor Cruz and Darius Slayton, the only common element between their rookie campaigns was the fact that they missed time due to a hamstring injury.
Cruz’s injury placed him on IR before recording a catch during the regular season, so similarly to Ike Hilliard, it’s a little unfair to compare their rookie campaigns, but it is what it is.
One thing that we can take away from Cruz’s rookie year was his preseason performance, where he would lead the NFL with 297 receiving yards and tie for the preseason lead with four touchdown catches. Similarly to Slayton, he showed flashes of what he could be, Slayton just had the opportunity to show us that with a bigger sample size.
What nobody expected was the performance Cruz would turn in during his sophomore season, where he took the league by storm and set a franchise record for receiving yards in a season with 1,536 on just 82 receptions.
From an undrafted prospect out of UMASS who didn’t play a down as a rookie to an All-Pro receiver racking up 9 receiving touchdowns and helping the NY Giants to a Super Bowl victory is something that’s supposed to only happen in movies.
Similarly to Hakeem Nicks, Cruz’s dominance was a flash in the pan. Over the next two years, he would record over 2,100 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns before tearing his patellar tendon vs the Eagles in 2014. The injury kept him sidelined for two years before making his return in 2016, racking up just 586 yards and 1 score before he was released.
Cruz would retire after six seasons and serve as another reminder of how fast and unpredictable NFL careers can be.
There are a lot of similarities between Cruz and Slayton’s style of play. Both have similar builds and are more fast than physical. Cruz had success playing outside and in the slot throughout his career, and his elite route running created mismatches week-in and week-out.
Slayton’s speed is unquestioned and his rookie year showed us that he has a more developed route tree than some anticipated with him coming out of Auburn. As he grows into the offense and as a player, we should only see his production grow.
Advantage: Slayton
5. Darius Slayton (2019) vs Odell Beckham Jr. (2014)
It will be a long time before we see another rookie campaign that looked like that of Odell Beckham Jr’s in 2014. After playing in just 12 games, Beckham would go on to set franchise rookie records for receiving yards (1,305), receptions (91), and touchdowns (12).
There is a simple reason why OBJ just about doubled every one of Slayton’s numbers as a rookie and that’s because OBJ is not a normal talent. He is an elite receiver with elite hands and speed.
Although both Slayton and OBJ have similar builds and are speedy, big-play guys, OBJ is just more gifted and played with a veteran QB with a somewhat better offensive line – which certainly makes a difference.
That does not mean Slayton won’t have an incredible career moving forward, but they are just not on the same level, which is okay.
Slayton recorded six or more catches twice in his rookie year compared to OBJ’s nine. Beckham also racked up seven games with 100+ receiving yards, which alone would have given him more receiving yards than Slayton’s season.
If you just looked at OBJ’s last four games of the season, he would have had 43 receptions for 606 yards and 7 scores, almost equaling Slayton’s entire season.
Again, all of this isn’t to take away from the season Slayton turned in, but it is a great reminder that Beckham was/is a generational talent and those types of rookie seasons aren’t normal.
Slayton has primed himself to become the go-to wideout for Daniel Jones for years to come and ultimately put together a much more impressive career with the NY Giants – one filled with less drama, kicking nets, and playoff drops.
Advantage: OBJ
What does it all mean?
In all honestly, not much other than getting an idea of where Slayton’s rookie season ranks among past NY Giants. Clearly, careers aren’t made or broken in year one and if they were, Toomer, Hilliard, and Cruz would be afterthoughts and OBJ would already be in the NY Giants Ring of Honor.
Hopefully, this provided a little bit of perspective on the type of player Slayton is and how strong of a start he’s put together for his career in the Meadowlands. He is still very raw and has areas to improve, which is more exciting than the season he just had.
We’re in good hands (literally) with Slayton, and his rookie season is a great indicator of that.