There seems to be more skepticism than ever surrounding New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones heading into the 2024 season and teammate Darius Slayton is tired of hearing it.
The Giants held joint practices with the New York Jets this week. After Wednesday’s session, Jets star cornerback Sauce Gardner was asked if he had an opinion on Jones. Gardner was very careful with his response and had a very long pause before praising Jones for the quarterback’s competitiveness. You can see the video here.
Even if Gardner was not aiming to make Jones look bad, Slayton said Thursday that he was tired of the “negative narrative” surrounding his signal-caller. The 27-year-old receiver compared Jones to other young quarterbacks and argued that the former Duke star is held to a higher standard because of the market in which the Giants play.
In order to make his point, Slayton downplayed the accomplishments of Los Angeles Chargers star Justin Herbert.
“I think because we play in prime time a lot, we’re media-covered a lot, we’re the Giants,” Slayton said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “If we were the Jaguars — like you don’t hear anybody say anything about Trevor Lawrence. Or 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?”
Slayton then elaborated on his point.
“You just believe he’s capable of that,” Slayton said, “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.”
Slayton was drafted by the Giants in the fifth round in 2019, which is the same year they took Jones sixth overall. Jones has since signed a four-year, $160 million extension with New York, though most would argue he has not lived up to it.
There were even reports coming into the season that the Giants are not fully confident in Jones, but they are committed to him at the moment. Jones will have plenty to prove this season, no matter how much his teammates try to hype him up.
