Darius Slayton: There’s a lot more football to play

Darius Slayton has had his fair share of experiences in the NFL during his career thus far.

From dealing with severe injuries while navigating how to make the most of your opportunity in the NFL, Slayton can provide wisdom, especially for younger players in the league.

On Monday, Slayton spoke to the media about a wide-range of topics, including the difficulty of dealing with a concussion, advice he’d give to a younger player who hasn’t seen the field much as well as his thoughts on whether or not the New York Giants are far off from where they ultimately want to be.

Find out what Slayton had to say below:

Slayton on Malik Nabers

“He’s doing well. I saw him today for the first time since Friday, but he was in good spirits. He’s doing what he needs to do to. Concussion, all you can really do is keep your eyes closed. He’s handling that and he’s in good spirits.”

On the difficulty of dealing with a concussion

“It varies for everybody. It can affect your mood, your sensitivity to things, your vision, different things. For everybody it’s different, but he’s handling it well and I think he’ll be all right.”

Advice Slayton would give to Jalin Hyatt on lack of playing time

“That’s the NFL. It’s a very competitive league. Specifically, our team, we have a lot of good players on our team. Your maybe lack of playing or involvement at times is not always an indictment on you. Sometimes it’s just the situation you’re in, the people you’re around. Obviously Jalin knows he’s a talented player. He knows he can help his team win. And we know he’s a talented player. We know he can help this team win. But it’s a long year. We’ve only played four games. The kind of dark reality of the NFL, sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hurt. Stuff happens. In one way, shape, or form, this opportunity will come. For us as players, your job is just to be ready for whenever that opportunity presents itself.”

Are the Giants far off?

“It’s a long year. I mean four games is, like you said earlier, a quarter of the year. Got a lot more football to play and ultimately, if we play better going forward, we’ll get different results, and you’ll look up and we’ll be where we want to be.”

Advantages/disadvantages of having extra time off

“I think the advantage is that it gives your body time to recover. Obviously playing that Sunday-Thursday back-to-back is a very short window to play football in, so it’s nice to have the time for your body to recover. I think it’s important to stay, if not fully physically locked in, mentally locked in, whether that be…I wouldn’t say that it’s the time to go to Miami and kick your feet up on the sand. It helps to get treatment or watch extra film or stretch, do Pilates, whatever it is you like to do to keep your body right in this time to try to keep yourself mentally into it, keep your body into it, but not fully relax.”

The difficulty of playing at Seattle

“For sure. I mean the 12s are well-known. They’re well-documented. It’s a loud place to play. They have a good football team. They’ve been a good football team for it feels like, the last two decades, so they’re always competitive. We know it’s going to be a tough challenge, but we’re going to work to go out there and get a win.”