Giants WR Darius Slayton: QB Daniel Jones gets unfair 'negative narrative'

It's a make-or-break season for New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

Jones is presumably playing for his job after the team finished last season 6-11 while he dealt with two substantial injuries (neck and a season-ending torn ACL). What's more, the franchise attempted to trade up for a QB in the 2024 NFL Draft. New York could save roughly $20 million in cap space after this season if it were to cut ties with the 27-year-old Jones.

In Jones' first game back from a torn ACL, he threw two interceptions in the first quarter of New York's preseason game against Houston last weekend, including a pick-six. He followed that up with an underwhelming outing in the Giants' joint practice with the New York Jets this week, leading Jets star CB Sauce Gardner to stumble when asked to assess Jones' performance.

Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton chimed in to support his teammate, saying "it's easy to say negative things once there's a negative narrative around a person" and just because there's a narrative of Jones that "doesn't make it true."

"What do you want DJ (Daniel Jones) to do?" Slayton asked. "It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Think about it. If he's out there and launched a double-covered, contested [pass], people are like, 'What is he looking at?' He checks it down to the running back, and it's like, 'Ah, man, the Giants couldn't get anything going today.' It's like, 'Alright, I guess.'"

Slayton further opined that the exposure the Giants get leads to Jones being heavily scrutinized.

"I think because we play in prime time a lot, we're media-covered a lot; we're the Giants," Slayton added. "If we were the [Jacksonville] Jaguars — like you don't hear anybody say anything about Trevor Lawrence. Or [Los Angeles Chargers QB] Justin Herbert, for that matter. Matter of fact, if you ask most people about Justin Herbert, they'd probably tell you that he's a top-five quarterback, but under what logic? Can you really make a case for that, that he's a top-five quarterback?

"You just believe he's capable of that, because you see the big arm, basically that he's big, he's tall, he has a rocket of an arm. You assume his processing is good. You assume he's smart and all these things. You don't actually know, though."

The Giants won just one of the six games that Jones was under center last season. Jones totaled 909 passing yards, 206 rushing yards, three combined touchdowns (two passing, one rushing), six interceptions and a career-worse 70.5 passer rating, while completing 67.5% of his passes across those games. 

The year prior, Jones had arguably the best season of his career — his first with head coach Brian Daboll at the wheel. Jones finished the regular season (16 games) having totaled 3,205 passing yards, 15 passing touchdowns, five interceptions and a 92.5 passer rating, while completing 67.2% of his passes. He also rushed for 708 yards and seven touchdowns. The Giants went 9-7-1 (9-6-1 in games that Jones played), good for the No. 2 NFC wild-card seed.

The Giants beat Minnesota in the wild-card round before being crushed by Philadelphia in the divisional round. In the win over the Vikings, Jones became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 300-plus yards, two-plus touchdowns and rush for 70-plus yards in a playoff game. He then signed a four-year, $160 million deal with the Giants.

New York is a combined 22-36-1 in the regular season and 1-1 in the postseason with Jones as the starter.

Last season, Slayton totaled 50 receptions for 770 yards and four touchdowns. He has led the Giants in receiving yards in four of his five seasons in the NFL. Slayton is entering the second season of a two-year, $12 million deal. Jones and Slayton were each part of New York's 2019 draft class.

The Giants open the regular season at home against the Vikings on Sept. 8 (1 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app).

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