Giants still have confidence Darius Slayton can turnaround nightmare season

CHICAGO — Little, if anything, has gone the way the Giants and Darius Slayton envisioned it would go after the team and the player surprised most everyone last March with the news that he was staying around with a three-year contract for $36 million.Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers.

Slayton is struggling through a rough seventh year with the team that selected him in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, making him the longest-tenured player on offense.In the season opener, Slayton played 66 snaps at Washington and did not catch a pass.It has not gotten appreciably better.

He had a costly fumble in the loss in New Orleans and dropped what should have been a touchdown reception in last week’s 34-24 loss to the 49ers.Slayton enters Sunday’s game against the Bears with 19 catches for 254 yards and no touchdowns in seven games.He has not come close to picking up the slack after Malik Nabers tore his ACL in Week 4.“I have a ton of confidence in Slay and all the stuff that he does in the pass game, in the run game, who he is as a leader, the captain of the team, how he is in the meeting rooms,’’ offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said.

“Listen, we’re right in the middle of it in the season, and there’s a lot of season left.So, we’re excited.’’This could be the first game for the Giants this season where weather is a big factor.

The forecast in Chicago for Sunday is for a low of 26 degrees, high of 36 degrees, snow showers and wind at 25-35 mph, with even stronger gusts possible.This figures to be the first “weather game’’ for Jaxson Dart with the Giants, but it will not be his first action in adverse conditions.“I’m from Utah,’’ he said.“If you know anything about Utah, I played in four seasons.

I played in snow games in high school.That’s not something that is new to me.

I played out at high school where the wind blew, it was right outside of a canyon....