Who has two thumbs, played 33 snaps in the Giants’ preseason finale, spent the past week looking like a potential roster casualty, and somehow survived New York's roster cut day?
Veteran wide receiver Darius Slayton.
Slayton making the initial 53-man roster shouldn’t exactly qualify as news, especially for a player entering his eighth season with Big Blue. But after everything that happened over the past few weeks, his roster spot never felt anything close to guaranteed. And the biggest clue that something was up came Friday night.
Darius Slayton’s Giants roster spot comes with plenty of questions
Slayton played 33 offensive snaps in New York’s 23-6 preseason finale win over the Jets, which is an awful lot of work for a receiver entering Year 8 who was supposed to be locked into a meaningful role on the offense as Jaxson Dart's No. 2 wideout. Most of the other projected starters spent the night safely watching from the sideline.
Slayton was out there playing deep into the third quarter. Not exactly a great look for how new head coach John Harbaugh views the former fifth-round pick out of Auburn.
Add in the trade speculation that followed him throughout the final weeks of the offseason, and it wasn’t hard to wonder whether Big Blue was giving the rest of the league one final look at No. 18 before cut day. Apparently, nothing materialized.
Releasing Slayton outright wouldn't have made much financial sense, either. The G-Men would’ve eaten roughly $12.7 million in dead cap while creating only around $3.2 million in cap savings by cutting Slay. Paying him nearly $13 million to potentially catch passes somewhere else isn’t exactly the best business model, especially when the talent at home is suspect.
Malik Nabers is coming back from a torn ACL. Calvin Austin III suffered a season-ending ACL injury. Odell Beckham Jr. is back, but hasn’t played a regular-season snap since December 2024. Malachi Fields has looked awesome, but he’s still a rookie who wasn't even the primary target at Notre Dame.
Go ahead and scour the waiver wire. You’re probably not finding many receivers with four 700-plus-yard seasons sitting around unemployed for the taking.
Keeping Slayton makes sense. It also allows general manager Joe Schoen to keep a guy who could become much more appealing come trade deadline time. Receiver-needy teams that weren’t interested in parting with a draft pick might change their tune after the first couple of weeks shake out.
That’s where Slayton’s roster "victory" gets a tad bit awkward.
Making the initial 53 doesn’t necessarily put all of the prior speculation to bed. Here’s the reality he won’t like: New York didn’t find a trade it liked before cut day, and releasing him would’ve been a financial nightmare without an obvious upgrade sitting around to take his place.
That was enough to keep Slayton in East Rutherford for Week 1. Whether it’s enough to keep him here all season could be a different story.
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