Prior to last Sunday’s cutdown day, there were rumors about the roster security of a number of players around the league and Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton was on that list.
It turned out to be smoke rather than fire as Slayton remained with the team through the cut to 53 players and there’s no sign that the team is planning to make a move involving the veteran wideout at this point. On Tuesday, Slayton was asked his thoughts regarding the speculation about his future.
“Nothing really. It’s not the first time, probably won’t be the last time,” Slayton said, via a transcript from the team. “But I really don’t pay it too much of mind, honestly. I just take it day by day. . . . At the end of the day, you control what you can control and let the rest fall where it may.”
Slayton is heading into his eighth season with the Giants and he was their top receiving target for much of that time. Malik Nabers now occupies that slot and the team will hope he’s healthy enough to ensure that Slayton, Odell Beckham Jr. and the rest of the team’s wideouts are left to complementary roles in the offense.
Jalin Hyatt’s decision, voluntary or otherwise, to surrender No. 13 to Odell Beckham Jr. wasn’t the only back-to-the-future move when it comes to Giants receiver numbers.
Rookie Malachi Fields shed No. 0, which he had worn during the preseason, for No. 88. And that got Giants fans thinking immediately about former Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks.
A first-round pick in 2009, Nicks spent five years with the Giants, one with the Colts, and a final season with the Giants. He was a member of the Super Bowl XLVI championship team, catching 10 passes for 109 yards in the victory over the Patriots.
But Nicks’s number isn’t the only one making a comeback. Hyatt picked No. 81 after giving up No. 13. That number was worn by Amani Toomer from 1996 through 2008. He was a member of the Super Bowl XLI-winning team, catching six passes for 84 yards in the victory over the Patriots.
Before 2004, receivers typically wore numbers from 80 to 89. In 2004, 10 through 19 were added to the mix. Nowadays, they can also wear single-digit numbers.
Odell Beckham Jr. is back in New York. And he’s now back in No. 13.
The Giants announced the numerical assignment on Tuesday.
As of yesterday, it wasn’t entirely clear that he’d wrest it away from receiver Jalin Hyatt. But with Hyatt on the practice squad, Beckham gets natural priority.
Also, and as Simms observed on PFT Live, Hyatt shouldn’t want No. 13. That jersey hasn’t worked out for him with the Giants.
Beyond getting cut from the roster on Sunday, Hyatt has 36 catches for 470 yards and zero touchdowns in three full seasons wearing No. 13.
In his first 12 games with the Giants in 2014, OBJ had 91 catches for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham experienced something new while waiting for the Giants to set their initial 53-man roster for the 2026 season.
Beckham was on the roster bubble since returning to the team this spring and said on Monday that “it was a different feeling” to be unsure about whether he’d wind up making the cut ahead of Week 1. Beckham said it created some pressure to feel “I have to go and get it” after years of being on the top of depth charts and that making it to the regular season was “an honor and a privilege” he wants to take full advantage of moving forward.
“I have an opportunity to rewrite some of the last bit of the chapter,” Beckham said, via a transcript from the team. “Don’t know, last year, whatever it is, I just know I’m going to give my all. But definitely had that moment where it was like you could let out some of the pain that I feel like I went through. It was just very healing, very emotional, something I was very happy about.”
Beckham making it through final cuts was a nice story, but it will be less resonant if it isn’t followed by meaningful contributions to the team during the season. It’s been a while since the wideout has made that kind of an impact, so it remains to be seen just how different the final chapter will wind up looking.
Wide receiver Malik Nabers’s availability for Week 1 remains one of the biggest questions for the Giants.
Nabers steadily increased his practice participation over the course of the summer, but neither he nor the team has said anything definitive about his status for Week 1 against the Cowboys. That continued during the wideout’s press conference on Monday when he said he feels good, but “there’s still some things that you still have to check off the box for you to participate.”
Nabers added that he does not want to come back on a pitch count or with other limitations to what he’s able to do.
“My mind is focused on playing the regular season, playing whenever that is and playing what team it is,” Nabers said, via a transcript from the team. “I’m going to be making sure that I’m ready to go out there and I’m healthy enough to play all four quarters. That nobody got to make sure I’m not in on every play or they have to make sure I got enough snaps or my snaps are limited. So, that’s the main focus is just trying to be out there as much as I can.”
Nabers said he’ll keep the remaining “checkpoints” to himself and the Giants will be hoping he reaches them in time for Dallas.
