June 12, 2025 • 8 mins
Wide Receiver Darius Slayton speaks to the media after practice Thursday at Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's start from number ten, went into that.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just wanted to be under twenty, so I had
a couple options. Eighteen was like the last. It was
like eighteen nineteen and two I think. Then we signed
to russ so he went to three, so that moved
Tata too, so that I was just like, put me
in eighteen. No personal reason, bost How was.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It playing with him? What kind of.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Connection you have going with him? It's been awesome. You know, his.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Knowledge of the game has shown already.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, obviously he has amazing talent with the ball accuracy,
great touch on the deep balls. I don't really know
that he's missed more than one or two deep balls.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
This whole camp.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, it's really accurate, really smart. It's helped keep
us in good plays, you know, throughout the whole camp.
So his his his impact has been felt for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
One such an easy bullet to catch. Yeah, why you
hit your hands? Are you forming that?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
So?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, definitely, it's definitely.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's just had a nice pace, even spiral, nice pace,
you know, a firm ball that gets to you so
you don't get.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Killed, but you know, smooth enough to where like it's
it's it's very catchable.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
How much do you think that should help you?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Right, the idea that he throws that that good deep
ball and that kind of place into what your strength
is obviously, how much should that benefit you theoretically.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
A toll him? You know, I love I love going deep.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
That's's kind of how I you know, made my name
so to speak in the league, was you know, making
plays down the field.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But you know it's not just myself. You know, all
of us can run. Leak can run. Jalen can run, even.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know one Dale's many as many legs.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Be moving, you know, so he can run too, So
you know, and it's shown, you know, over over ot
is shown. You know, I think everybody's probably to touch
the ball down the field from Russ at some point.
So think it'll help everybody be able to stretch the
field and add some you know yards per catches.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Progress from Jaalen this year, this summer or this spring
the other.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, he definitely you know what he was eating maybe
people or something. He came back slowed up, so he
put on a good about twenty team twenty pounds, I think.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
So he's definitely he's been stronger. He looks he looks big,
he looks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Stronger, and that's definitely, you know, helped his game some
and I think I think he's definitely made stride so.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Far the spring. How would you describe your chemistry with
Russ so far? Good?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's honestly, it's been pretty smooth, like it feels it
feels like it feels like he's been here longer than
he has and I sure, I'm sure some of that
attributes his experience, and he has a very clear vision
of what he wants.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
He's a very clear communicator.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So you know, as long as your ears work, all
you got to do is listen and do what you
need he needs you to do, and you know, the
rest takes care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
That? What you say?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's a clear communicator. Can you give me an example?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, so, like an example of so he does still
a very good deep all right, But that's obviously his mentality.
He wants to push the ball down the field and attack.
So if we're in the huddle, we have a play,
and you know there's certain plays where the ball designed
to go certain places, and so in his head, he
might you know, be in hoble to be like, hey,
you got the post here, but like you're not dead,
you know, because a lot of times you might run
a you know, a post corner whatever, different concepts, and
(02:57):
the guy underneath always gets the ball, always gets the ball.
So you're got running deeper, just kind of like running
for the love. But be like, hey, alert here, like
the safety drives, I'll give it to you. And he's
done that multiple times over camp, and so that's that's
kind of what I mean by like, Okay, it gives
you some like all right, you're gonna run anyways, but
it gives you a little extra juice of like I
can really get the ball right here.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The QB room a lot has been made, as you know,
the most interesting in the league.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, it is a it's an interesting compilation of individuals.
But you know, Jamis and Russ are you know that
veteran presence. Jamis is a wild card though just as
a human being, you know, so having his personality around
is is amazing. But also you know, they both have
great presence in leadership about them.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
You know, you see the.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Age is probably a little rude, the seasoning in both
of them, you know, the veteran leadership. They both have
and also you know you have dark you know, the
kind of the young kid. He's kind of learning to
find his way, but he has two good mentors to
learn from.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
What's wild card there? Jamus System.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's like it's so hard to describe. It's just like
like how I'm talking right now. He'll be talking just
like this, and it's just the random thoughts that come
to his head and they just come out and it's
like we were talking about, you know, a slant how
did we get to Kentucky Fried Chicken? It's like just
hard lefts, Like I can't think of an exact example,
(04:16):
but like that's how best how I could describe. It's
just like random hard left. But then he comes right
back on topics. It's like am My trippering?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
A you tripping? But you know he's a really fun
got to be around.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Is that a good thing that would kind of keep
you on your.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Toes because like I said, he has the most unique
bounce I've ever seen of like light but serious. So
he's very serious, like because he's a quarterback, so he's
very knowledge but he's very serious when he needs to
be serious. But at the same time, he has a
light energy about him, so it keeps you know, people calm,
you know, so it's not like you're not like nervous
(04:48):
to play with him.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That such a unique group, and we talked to you
after you resigned. It was totally on sublink. Tommy was
probably the only guy under contract. What was it like
seeing these pieces come together, just like your reaction as
they did that.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, free agency is always chaos, you know. So I
think I think besign James first, So you know, that
was you know, obviously it was like great, cool. You know,
we've got a veteran quarterback who's who succeeded selfishly as
a receiver. Everybody's been receivers eight so I was like, hey,
you know, cool with me. But I mean obviously then
we win and got Russ a little bit while later.
You know, you add somebody who's been a champion, a
(05:19):
ten time pro bowler, you know, a true pro, and
you know, you look at the room and then we
obviously we drafted Dark, so you know, you kind of
have your young gun who's you know, at one point
going to get his chance to shine and show what
he can do. So, you know, I think we have
a good combination of guys, you.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Seem pretty energy for number nine? Is that because these
quarterbacks because of of you've got a contract.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know, you're not your year here.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
I mean, why why is it true that you are
kind of jacked up a little bit here?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I would say, so, you know, because you're having fun.
You know, OTAs is like, is the funnest form of
football because practice don't kill you like camp does. But
for receivers you get a chance to run around, get
open and guts the ball, you know, score touchdowns to
make play.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So in my opinion, you know, OTAs is the most fun.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
As a as a receiver because you get the fun
stuff without killing yourself and being dog tired.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Now, in o these years you've had otah, sure you
felt that way, but do you feel any different now
with these quarterbacks we have there a terrible season and
you know, feeling that there's a light at the end
of the tunnel because remember the last year you were
pretty down on.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
A Yeah, yeah, I definitely think that we have a
lot of new energy period, just in the quarterback room,
in the receiver room. You know, we've had some of
our young guys UDFA guys have came in and played
a really good ball, So I think I think that's probably.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now I'm you know, older, you know, so just kind
of feeling the youth, you know, life.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Of youth around me. Do you think do you think
validated your decision to come back more? Does that energy? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, obviously I came back because you know, I
was confident in the direction that we were going to
go in. And obviously, once you make the acquisitions, you know,
obviously a lot of people, mostly folks on the quarterback position,
you know, once we you know, acquired the guys we
have now, you know, that obviously just raised the confidence
level of all right, we have a chance to be
a really really good offense.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
How do you think the offense looked today?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
We did? We did.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We started fast, and then we kind of had some lulls.
Most of it was like mental error lows, though not
physical errors, you know, just a little you know, OTA's
there's a lot of stuff in at once, so you're
gonna have some of that. But you know, we did
a good job of riding that wave and then we.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Ended up finishing practice strong.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So you know, it was honestly indicative of a game,
you know, you might start fast, it's gonna be a
rough part and got to find a way to finish strong.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
With Russ. How do you do with Jackson this fight?
You gets to maybe one rep, you said, at some
point he's obviously gonna come in. You're gonna win, that'll
be So how do you go about trying to establish
with him as well as Russ?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, he pops in our group a good amount, Like probably,
I don't I don't really know exactly how many, but
I know that I've been in the huddle and I
don't always look at the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So you know, I've been in the hunt.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I've heard different boys and been like, oh you're in
And so you know, he's he's had a chance, you know,
to get his reps here and there. But you know,
I know he's learning. Like I said, and O, ts
are so much information in for a quarterback. It's super hard,
you know. So, but he's done a good job of
coming along. He seems like a smart kid. He definitely
can spin it, for sure, you can. You can see
the arm tile without a doubt. So you know, I think,
(08:07):
I think, you know, he's got a chance to be
a good football player.
Let's start from number ten, went into that.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just wanted to be under twenty, so I had
a couple options. Eighteen was like the last. It was
like eighteen nineteen and two I think. Then we signed
to russ so he went to three, so that moved
Tata too, so that I was just like, put me
in eighteen. No personal reason, bost How was.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It playing with him? What kind of.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Connection you have going with him? It's been awesome. You know, his.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Knowledge of the game has shown already.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, obviously he has amazing talent with the ball accuracy,
great touch on the deep balls. I don't really know
that he's missed more than one or two deep balls.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
This whole camp.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, it's really accurate, really smart. It's helped keep
us in good plays, you know, throughout the whole camp.
So his his his impact has been felt for sure.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
One such an easy bullet to catch. Yeah, why you
hit your hands? Are you forming that?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
So?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, definitely, it's definitely.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's just had a nice pace, even spiral, nice pace,
you know, a firm ball that gets to you so
you don't get.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Killed, but you know, smooth enough to where like it's
it's it's very catchable.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
How much do you think that should help you?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Right, the idea that he throws that that good deep
ball and that kind of place into what your strength
is obviously, how much should that benefit you theoretically.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
A toll him? You know, I love I love going deep.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
That's's kind of how I you know, made my name
so to speak in the league, was you know, making
plays down the field.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
But you know it's not just myself. You know, all
of us can run. Leak can run. Jalen can run, even.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
You know one Dale's many as many legs.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Be moving, you know, so he can run too, So
you know, and it's shown, you know, over over ot
is shown. You know, I think everybody's probably to touch
the ball down the field from Russ at some point.
So think it'll help everybody be able to stretch the
field and add some you know yards per catches.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
Progress from Jaalen this year, this summer or this spring
the other.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, he definitely you know what he was eating maybe
people or something. He came back slowed up, so he
put on a good about twenty team twenty pounds, I think.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
So he's definitely he's been stronger. He looks he looks big,
he looks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Stronger, and that's definitely, you know, helped his game some
and I think I think he's definitely made stride so.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Far the spring. How would you describe your chemistry with
Russ so far? Good?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's honestly, it's been pretty smooth, like it feels it
feels like it feels like he's been here longer than
he has and I sure, I'm sure some of that
attributes his experience, and he has a very clear vision
of what he wants.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
He's a very clear communicator.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So you know, as long as your ears work, all
you got to do is listen and do what you
need he needs you to do, and you know, the
rest takes care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What is that?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:33):
That? What you say?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
It's a clear communicator. Can you give me an example?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, so, like an example of so he does still
a very good deep all right, But that's obviously his mentality.
He wants to push the ball down the field and attack.
So if we're in the huddle, we have a play,
and you know there's certain plays where the ball designed
to go certain places, and so in his head, he
might you know, be in hoble to be like, hey,
you got the post here, but like you're not dead,
you know, because a lot of times you might run
a you know, a post corner whatever, different concepts, and
(02:57):
the guy underneath always gets the ball, always gets the ball.
So you're got running deeper, just kind of like running
for the love. But be like, hey, alert here, like
the safety drives, I'll give it to you. And he's
done that multiple times over camp, and so that's that's
kind of what I mean by like, Okay, it gives
you some like all right, you're gonna run anyways, but
it gives you a little extra juice of like I
can really get the ball right here.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
The QB room a lot has been made, as you know,
the most interesting in the league.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, it is a it's an interesting compilation of individuals.
But you know, Jamis and Russ are you know that
veteran presence. Jamis is a wild card though just as
a human being, you know, so having his personality around
is is amazing. But also you know, they both have
great presence in leadership about them.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
You know, you see the.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Age is probably a little rude, the seasoning in both
of them, you know, the veteran leadership. They both have
and also you know you have dark you know, the
kind of the young kid. He's kind of learning to
find his way, but he has two good mentors to
learn from.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
What's wild card there? Jamus System.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's like it's so hard to describe. It's just like
like how I'm talking right now. He'll be talking just
like this, and it's just the random thoughts that come
to his head and they just come out and it's
like we were talking about, you know, a slant how
did we get to Kentucky Fried Chicken? It's like just
hard lefts, Like I can't think of an exact example,
(04:16):
but like that's how best how I could describe. It's
just like random hard left. But then he comes right
back on topics. It's like am My trippering?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
A you tripping? But you know he's a really fun
got to be around.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Is that a good thing that would kind of keep
you on your.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Toes because like I said, he has the most unique
bounce I've ever seen of like light but serious. So
he's very serious, like because he's a quarterback, so he's
very knowledge but he's very serious when he needs to
be serious. But at the same time, he has a
light energy about him, so it keeps you know, people calm,
you know, so it's not like you're not like nervous
(04:48):
to play with him.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That such a unique group, and we talked to you
after you resigned. It was totally on sublink. Tommy was
probably the only guy under contract. What was it like
seeing these pieces come together, just like your reaction as
they did that.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, free agency is always chaos, you know. So I
think I think besign James first, So you know, that
was you know, obviously it was like great, cool. You know,
we've got a veteran quarterback who's who succeeded selfishly as
a receiver. Everybody's been receivers eight so I was like, hey,
you know, cool with me. But I mean obviously then
we win and got Russ a little bit while later.
You know, you add somebody who's been a champion, a
(05:19):
ten time pro bowler, you know, a true pro, and
you know, you look at the room and then we
obviously we drafted Dark, so you know, you kind of
have your young gun who's you know, at one point
going to get his chance to shine and show what
he can do. So, you know, I think we have
a good combination of guys, you.
Speaker 5 (05:33):
Seem pretty energy for number nine? Is that because these
quarterbacks because of of you've got a contract.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know, you're not your year here.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
I mean, why why is it true that you are
kind of jacked up a little bit here?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I would say, so, you know, because you're having fun.
You know, OTAs is like, is the funnest form of
football because practice don't kill you like camp does. But
for receivers you get a chance to run around, get
open and guts the ball, you know, score touchdowns to
make play.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So in my opinion, you know, OTAs is the most fun.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
As a as a receiver because you get the fun
stuff without killing yourself and being dog tired.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Now, in o these years you've had otah, sure you
felt that way, but do you feel any different now
with these quarterbacks we have there a terrible season and
you know, feeling that there's a light at the end
of the tunnel because remember the last year you were
pretty down on.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
A Yeah, yeah, I definitely think that we have a
lot of new energy period, just in the quarterback room,
in the receiver room. You know, we've had some of
our young guys UDFA guys have came in and played
a really good ball, So I think I think that's probably.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now I'm you know, older, you know, so just kind
of feeling the youth, you know, life.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Of youth around me. Do you think do you think
validated your decision to come back more? Does that energy? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
You know, obviously I came back because you know, I
was confident in the direction that we were going to
go in. And obviously, once you make the acquisitions, you know,
obviously a lot of people, mostly folks on the quarterback position,
you know, once we you know, acquired the guys we
have now, you know, that obviously just raised the confidence
level of all right, we have a chance to be
a really really good offense.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
How do you think the offense looked today?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
We did? We did.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
We started fast, and then we kind of had some lulls.
Most of it was like mental error lows, though not
physical errors, you know, just a little you know, OTA's
there's a lot of stuff in at once, so you're
gonna have some of that. But you know, we did
a good job of riding that wave and then we.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Ended up finishing practice strong.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So you know, it was honestly indicative of a game,
you know, you might start fast, it's gonna be a
rough part and got to find a way to finish strong.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
With Russ. How do you do with Jackson this fight?
You gets to maybe one rep, you said, at some
point he's obviously gonna come in. You're gonna win, that'll
be So how do you go about trying to establish
with him as well as Russ?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, he pops in our group a good amount, Like probably,
I don't I don't really know exactly how many, but
I know that I've been in the huddle and I
don't always look at the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So you know, I've been in the hunt.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I've heard different boys and been like, oh you're in
And so you know, he's he's had a chance, you know,
to get his reps here and there. But you know,
I know he's learning. Like I said, and O, ts
are so much information in for a quarterback. It's super hard,
you know. So, but he's done a good job of
coming along. He seems like a smart kid. He definitely
can spin it, for sure, you can. You can see
the arm tile without a doubt. So you know, I think,
(08:07):
I think, you know, he's got a chance to be
a good football player.
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