Darius Slayton opens up about mentality change with Russell Wilson after Daniel Jones' failed stint

New York Giants wideout Darius Slayton will be playing with a new quarterback in the 2025 season. The Giants signed veterans Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston, while drafting Jaxson Dart this offseason, and Slayton is looking forward to linking up with his new teammates next season.

While speaking to reporters this past week, Slayton spoke about playing with Wilson this offseason, in comparison to playing with Jones for the past few seasons.

“There’s certain plays where the ball’s designed to go certain places. In his head, he might be in the huddle and go ‘Hey, you’ve got the post here, but you’re not dead,'” Slayton said.

“A lot of times, you might run a post corner, whatever different concepts, and the guy underneath always gets the ball. When you’re the guy running deep, you’re just kind of running for love. He’ll be like, ‘Hey, alert here, if the safety drops, I’ll give it to you,’ and he’s done it multiple times over camp.

“You’re going to run anyways, but it gives you a little extra juice. I could really get the ball right here.”

Dan Schneier

@DanSchneierNFL

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Darius Slayton on the mentality change at Giants QB w/ Russell Wilson.

"A lot of the times you'd run a vertical concept and the ball keeps going underneath, underneath, but Russ will alert you "hey if the safety drops, I'll get you the ball" and he's actually done it a lot in camp.. and it gives you a little bit of extra juice"

The Giants began the 2024 season with Jones as their starting QB. He was benched midway through the season after a string of poor performances and was subsequently released in November.

Although Jones signed with the Minnesota Vikings for the remainder of the season, he didn't play a game for the franchise. This offseason, Jones signed a reported one-year, $14 million deal with the Indianapolis Colts.

Giants WR Darius Slayton optimistic about 2025 season

New York Giants WR Darius Slayton - Source: Imagn

After Thursday's OTA session, Darius Slayton sounded optimistic:

“I was confident in the direction that we were going to go in, and obviously, once we make the acquisitions, obviously a lot of people mostly focus on the quarterback position.

“Once we acquire the guys we have now, that obviously just raised the confidence level of, alright, we have a chance to be a good offense.”

The Giants took Slayton in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL draft. He has been a consistent performer for the team ever since.

Across six seasons with the team, Slayton has recorded 3,897 yards and 21 touchdowns on 259 receptions.

The Giants re-signed Darius Slayton on a three-year, $36 million contract this offseason.