Darius Slayton, New York Giants. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
These five NFL players will benefit so much from having a new head coach in town.
When a new coaching regime comes to town, it is the new head coach’s responsibility to set the tone necessary for a much-needed cultural turnaround. If the culture in the building was great, his predecessor would still have a job. For some, it’s their first time sitting in the big chair. For others, it’s another opportunity to build on what worked and what didn’t last time.
During the 2020 NFL offseason, five franchises decided to make major changes to their organization by bringing in a new head coach. While a few of these openings belonged to organizations we deem dysfunctional, a pair of NFL teams fired their long-standing coaches in favor of going in a new direction in the 2020s.
While every player in the league is talented, as they wouldn’t be there otherwise, very few can reach their full potential without the right coaching staff around to build them up. Though it’ll be highly unlikely all five of these new head coaches work out, expect these five players to improve dramatically under these new coaching regimes in town.
Here are five players who gain so much from their new NFL head coach.
5
Darius Slayton
WR New York Giants
The New York Giants opted to pull the plug on the Pat Shurmur experiment after only two years. While he is an incredible offensive coordinator, he never had the dynamic personality to be the main man in the room. New York opted to go with longtime New England Patriots special teams coach Joe Judge as his successor for 2020.
While the Giants could be a total tire fire this year, they might have been onto something by hiring Judge to be their next head coach, perhaps a year earlier than expected. Then again, if the G-Men didn’t hire him, he would have gone to his alma mater to coach the Mississippi State Bulldogs instead of Mike Leach. So how does a former special teams coach make his players better?
One player who could pop in his second NFL season and his first under Judge is wide receiver Darius Slayton. As a rookie, the former fifth-round pick out of Auburn had 48 catches for 740 yards and eight trips to pay dirt. Though he was surely being elevated to a degree in Shurmur’s offensive system, he also had a rookie quarterback throwing him the ball in Daniel Jones.
Judge did briefly coach the wide receivers in New England under Bill Belichick. Add in Slayton having a built-in rapport with Jones and he could really take off in year two out of Auburn. With running back Saquon Barkley and wide receiver Sterling Shepard already proven commodities, look for Slayton to push for 1,000 yards and help the Giants make somewhat respectable this year.