Giants are thinking downfield with Daniel Jones, Malik Nabers, Darius Slayton and everyone else
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones against the Houston Texans in the preseason last month. Credit: AP/Eric Christian Smith
Moving the ball down the field in the NFL is difficult. Doing so in small increments is even more difficult.
Everyone knows this, but only some teams consistently do something about it — teams that often are among the league’s best.
Enter the Giants, whose goal is to be more successful this season, armed with a new big-play threat in receiver Malik Nabers and a new play-caller in Brian Daboll.
Will they be able to gain yardage in chunks?
The offense trended in that direction during training camp and the preseason, but the first relevant test will come on Sunday against the Vikings at MetLife Stadium.
You might recall the matchup between the teams in a wild-card playoff game on Jan. 15, 2023, in which the Giants upset Minnesota, 31-24. Daniel Jones threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns en route to being given a hefty new contract. But that was a much different-looking, more conservative offense.
“Back then, we were running kind of a different scheme altogether, honestly,” said Darius Slayton, who had 88 receiving yards in that game. “A lot has changed. It’ll definitely be a completely different game than it was last time, on both sides.”
As Slayton pointed out, when he and Jones entered the league as rookies in 2019, the Giants did like to throw downfield under then-coach Pat Shurmur.
So when asked if he thinks Jones has it in him to do that, Slayton said: “We came in pretty explosive, honestly, my rookie year. We got the ball down the field a good bit.
“It wasn’t like we came in and he’s been trying to be able to get the ball down the field his whole career. We started there and then went back. I think it’s in him. He’s shown that he’s capable.”
Daboll said before Jones’ preseason game against the Texans last month that the game plan was to “try to push the ball down the field, which has been a point of emphasis.”
Jones ended up throwing four balls at least 20 yards, which was a significantly higher rate than his regular-season norm during the past four seasons.
Daboll was his usual reticent self before practice on Friday when asked if the point of emphasis will carry into the regular season.
But he did acknowledge the obvious: That sole reliance on the short stuff is not a viable option.
“Being able to execute all facets of offense is really important, not just one area,” he said. “But big plays help. You skip third downs. You move the ball a little bit farther down the field. There are less plays in a drive. All those things happen.
“You’ve got to be really, really efficient on long drives. Again, the amount of big plays that happen each and every year is small. But it is significant in terms of outcomes of games and points.”
Said Slayton: “It’s really hard in the NFL to 5- and 10- and 15-yard pass your way down the field no matter who you are. So obviously it helps a lot to create explosives. It leads to points.”
The trick is adding to the degree of difficulty without adding turnovers. In 2019, Jones threw a career-high 12 interceptions. In 2022, he led the league with the lowest interception rate, with only five in 472 attempts.
Is he now mature enough as a player to take more risks without making more mistakes?
“I think so, for sure,” Slayton said. “Turnovers is a blanket statistic that has no context. It’s hard to just say there were a lot of turnovers. Stuff happens. People run the wrong routes, they drop the ball, a bunch of stuff.
“I think it’s easy as a player sometimes to let stuff like that get in our head, but I think D.J. does a good job of blocking all that stuff out. I think he’s going to be aggressive but also be smart.”
The X-factor is Nabers, the No. 6 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Is Slayton curious to see what he can do in a real game?
“No, I know what he’s going to do,” Slayton said. “At this point for me, it’ll be more of a ‘yeah, yeah, that’s what I thought’ than a surprise.”
Notes & quotes: The Giants listed no one as out, doubtful or questionable on their injury report. S Dane Belton (back), LB Brian Burns (ankle), QB Drew Lock (abdomen), LB Micah McFadden (groin) and WR Gunner Olszewski (groin) were limited in practice Friday.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
