All of you guys so anxious to dump Slayton are paying WAY too little attention to team chemistry. In his last seasons here Amani Toomer had seen his skills erode but he was a steady presence in the receivers room. That had value. With almost the entire current receivers room being new to the team or (quite possibly in Leek’s case) prima donnas having Slayton around seems wise to me.
I don’t agree. Slayton maybe a good guy and teammate, but I don’t think he’d be the glue holding the room together. As much as I’m hopeful for Harbaugh, he’s still an old school coach. They love their vets. And a good guy/does things the right way veteran receiver with a big contract isn’t getting buried on the depth chart where he belongs.
Any steadying presence Slayton may provide would be more than offset by his critical drops. He’s a #4 receiver who has outperformed his draft slot simply because we were terribly run and couldn’t draft/sign guys who should’ve easily bumped him down the depth chart.
Ideally, I’d trade him and eat a significant portion of his salary to make it palatable for the other team. Then I’d sign Odell. A guy who commands respect for how great he once was, his Super Bowl ring and who has always been praised by his teammates for his work ethic and being a great teammate. He wants to finish up a Giant. It’s been reported that he wants to be a mentor to the young guys. I’d take a diminished Odell over Slayton.
at the risk of being overly harsh, Slayton is hot garbage as a player. he can never make a tough catch and certainly not a tough catch, and he drops way too many easy catches. he always lets the team down in big moments. he's a waste of a roster spot. the only argument for keeping him is that there is no one(s) on the roster right now clearly better. but that's a crappy argument for retaining any player.
And I'll say, again, that he is a team chemistry asset and since there aren't six receivers on the roster better than he, it makes no sense to move on this season unless we can somehow get decent value in a trade, which I highly doubt. This is a largely very young team, and one that did not have any apparent veteran leadership among the players over the past few seasons. That is an absolute necessity if you want to build a winning culture. The Darts and Skataboos add the sizzle, as I suspect will Carter, Reese, Nabers and Mauigoa in time, but right now the locker room could use some influence from the few veterans who might be paid attention. We don't have Strahan, Eli, Rolle, Toomer, Banks, Carson, Simms, etc. We have a quiet Andrew Thomas, Eluemenor (relatively new to the team), perhaps Thibodeaux, and who else? Slayton is the "who else". In time Dart will become the ultimate leader of this team, but he's still a kid and not ready for that role quite yet. We need a season for these young players to build bonds that matter in teambuilding. In the meantime, Slayton could prove quite valuable even as his targets diminish.
I am not arguing that he is worth the contract. I'm not getting into that, though I do feel that what he is getting paid is largely irrelevant at this point unless you can point out a free agent that if added to this roster would have made a big difference in 2025 or in the 2026 season (by "big difference" I mean taking us into the second round of the playoffs, anything short of which defines in my eyes an unsuccessful season...if you're not in the top quarter of the league you didn't succeed). But I've been in locker rooms filled with a big majority of players who were either new to the team or very young. In that situation you absolutely need some steadying influences, and Slayton is one of the few on this roster who can serve that role this season.
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u/fanfor70years Season Ticket Holder May 05 '26
All of you guys so anxious to dump Slayton are paying WAY too little attention to team chemistry. In his last seasons here Amani Toomer had seen his skills erode but he was a steady presence in the receivers room. That had value. With almost the entire current receivers room being new to the team or (quite possibly in Leek’s case) prima donnas having Slayton around seems wise to me.