Syracuse Football: Giants expect Chris Slayton to be “key cog” in 2019

Former Syracuse football DL Chris Slayton is expected to be a “key cog” for the New York Giants in 2019. Here are all the details.

The lone Syracuse football player that was selected in the 2019 NFL Draft is expected to have a huge impact in year one.

In April, Chris Slayton was picked by the New York Giants in the seventh round with the 245th overall pick.

There’s no guarantee that a seventh-round draft choice will even make the final 53 man roster in September, but the Giants feel differently about Slayton.

"After selecting Slayton, Giants GM Dave Gettleman called him “a big, violent inside banger.” Gettleman also said the Giants had the Syracuse defensive lineman graded as a Round 5 talent,” per SB Nation’s Ed Valentine."

From NFL scouts we spoke to leading up to the draft, that evaluation of his draft stock seems accurate from the New York Giants general manager.

While normally seventh-round picks struggle to make the roster, Slayton doesn’t have to look far to find inspiration. Just a year prior another Syracuse football player was selected in the seventh round, his former teammate linebacker Zaire Franklin (235th overall by the Indianapolis Colts).

Not only did Zaire make the final 53, but he even started a few playoff games for the Colts in January. Chris hopes he can have half the success that Franklin did and so do the Giants.

Speaking of big blue, they have a surplus of talented defensive linemen on the team heading into training camp:

•  First-round pick, Dexter Lawrence
• B.J. Hill
• Dalvin Tomlinson
• RJ McIntosh

One of the things that separates Slayton from the rest of the pack is his versatility. You can literally line him up anywhere in the front-seven and the Giants maximized that during the spring lining up Chris at “the nose, or shade spot,” per SB Nation.

The expectation is that Slayton will make the roster and be a “key cog” in the defensive line rotation for the Giants this season. His problem on the hill at Syracuse was despite all the starts and elite traits, that didn’t seem to translate to big-time college production.

While perhaps he didn’t get the number people thought he could, he did do a phenomenal job eating up double and triple teams to open up things for his teammates.

For example, last season Syracuse had two double-digit sack guys in Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson (both notched 10 sacks apiece), that doesn’t happen without Chris.

The year prior Zaire Franklin and Parris Bennett wreaked havoc on opposing offenses because Slayton created open lanes for those linebackers to clean up in the backfield, again that doesn’t happen without Chris.

Slayton will open up those same opportunities for other members of the Giants to make big plays and hopefully, Chris can make a few big plays himself.