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