Transcript: Wide Receiver Darius Slayton

Wide Receiver Darius Slayton

Q. Who is faster you or (Jalin) Hyatt?

DARIUS SLAYTON: It has to be me. Love him, great kid, but it has to be me.

Q. We know you're a speed guy. When you're out there with guys who are faster than maybe players you've played with, does it make you notice your speed any more or less when they're out here and it's not just, oh, well, he's the fast guy, these guys are kind of moderate?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I think kind of selfishly as a speed guy, I lean towards other speed guys. I like watching people flying around fast. We've got a lot of them now. Parris (Campbell) was a 4.30 guy. Jeff Smith was a 4.2 guy, low 4.3 guy. And Hyatt obviously could fly. I could fly. You turn on the film, it's a whole lot of flying. I mean, it's fun to watch, fun to play with guys like that.

Q. Was it fun to watch him towards Alabama for five touchdowns?

DARIUS SLAYTON: That was the most fun. I was a fan before he got here.

Q. You've been with Daniel (Jones) basically since the beginning. Can you talk about the growth you've seen in him this spring? Notice he's throwing a lot deeper balls and whatnot. What have you seen from him and how well is he throwing the ball, in your opinion?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I think he's doing great. I think definitely walking away from last season, explosives were the thing we needed more of. I think definitely this spring it's been a conscious effort to push the ball down the field. We have all these guys, like having a bunch of Ferraris, keep them in the garage; take them out to the track. I think that's kind of been the mindset and maybe why you see a little more of the ball going down the field.

Q. Is that what intrigued you the most when you let yourself think about playing against another team, that how does that explosiveness change? Essentially your life on the football field.

DARIUS SLAYTON: For sure. They don't know where it's coming from. You've got me or Jalin or Parris or any of our guys. Darren (Waller) is huge but can fly. It's like you've got all these guys flying at you; you've got to guard somebody. I think for us it, it puts us all in an advantage situation.

Q. What's it like when Darren is in those wide receiver drills?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I kind of like try to stand away from him. You get a picture too close; it's Slay is really small. So don't get too close. (laughter). But he's impressive. I kind of just was telling someone, he's like what it looks like. Somebody asks what's an NFL tight end, you just point to Darren Waller; big, fast, can catch it. He's been a great addition to our team.

Q. Talked about all these new guys. You're not one of them. You know what I mean. What was your confidence level after the season that you would be in this position again to be here?

DARIUS SLAYTON: High. I believe in myself. I believe in my ability. I believe in the work I put in the offseason. Whether we add 10 guys, whether we add all of you guys, I believe I'll find my way on the field.

Q. Sometimes guys want to look elsewhere. It's like the grass sometimes is greener somewhere else. Why was it not for you, do you think?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I think there's a lot in limbo this offseason. D.J. was out there. A lot of us were free agents, that type of deal. But I think once he came back, I think it made all the sense in the world to keep playing with him. Got great chemistry with him. I enjoy being a part of this franchise. So, for me, it just made the most sense to come back.

Q. How much do you think -- teams are reluctant to do that when they lose -- the fact that you have been around a lot of losing. The fact that you guys won last year was it easier for everybody to say, let's bring him back, let's bring him back, let's sign him?

DARIUS SLAYTON: Yes, of course. Because if you win, it tells you have winning players. If you're losing, it's like I think we have winning players but we're losing. Definitely winning helps everybody, the building, us, everybody has confidence that we can go out and win games.

Q. If I made a list, I wish I did before I asked this question. I didn't. But if I made a list of guys who led their teams in receiving yards three of the last four seasons, it wouldn't be a very big list, have like a lot of Pro Bowl type receivers in it. Do you feel you get enough credit for being as good as you are for leading this team for three of the last four years, do you feel like you do -- I don't -- but does it bother that you don't?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I wouldn't say it bothers me because everybody doesn't know what I know. Everybody is not in the Giants building. At the end of the day, you can only judge based on what you see from afar. You see this guy go for a 1,010. Or see a guy go for 100 yards every week, and you go, he's really good. Some of these guys play with nobody. I play with Saquon (Barkley). Where do you think the ball is going first? Not me. (Sterling Shepard) Shep, we had Evan Engram and now Darren. I didn't play with just a bunch of bombs. That's a little annoying because at the end of the day it's not like I've ever been the only person or one person to get the ball, whereas somebody is. It is what it is. At the end of the day, I just play to win. As long as the Giants win, I'll be all right.

Q. What do you think about Jalin Hyatt, what's impressed you most about him so far?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I hate to say speed, but he's fast. Like I said, he can play. You can see the talent. Not just his speed. He has a little viral video of him telling the coach he can route run and stuff. I think he does route run well. He catches the ball well. I think just all the way around he's a very talented player.

Q. What about the mental aspect of his game; do you see a lot of mistakes? What do you see from that?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I wouldn't say any more mistakes than that's abnormal. This offense is tough, I'll be honest with you. Some days I'm like, I think I have a go ball. So that's going to come with being a rookie. I wouldn't say anything more than normal mistakes.

Q. Probably in the offseason when you were a free agent you never stopped using "we," referring to the Giants offending Daniel, slander. Was that a conscious decision for you, or was that just subconsciously you never allowed yourself to separate from being here and being a part of this?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I think the Daniel stuff is subconscious. I could be in Antarctica, and I see a bad tweet, I've got to address it. I think it's just a subconscious thing. I've been here. This is all I know. D.J. is all I know. The Giants are all I know. Definitely probably a subconscious deal. But I did have to, like, remember, like, I'm a free agent sometimes. I tried not to, but yeah.

Q. You talked a lot about the speed and the receiver group, what other skills kind of help add diversity to a room like that that can help you pop off, Jalin pop off, some of your fastest guys?

DARIUS SLAYTON: I think guys like Collin (Johnson) and Isaiah (Hodgins) add a good changeup, bigger guys, big, strong guys that can beat you up. It's not like we just have a bunch of speed guys. We've got big guys; and obviously Darren is an everything, big and fast. A guy like him helps. And all of our backs -- but whenever we get Saquon back and (Matt) Breida and those guys, they help in mismatches.