When the New York Giants started their 2022 NFL season against the Tennessee Titans, wide receiver Darius Slayton didn’t play. After taking a pay cut just to stay on the roster, Slayton was a game-day inactive, and he hardly played in the next two games either.

But when the season ended, the former Auburn standout had more receiving yards than any other New York player for the third time in his four NFL seasons.

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“I think it was definitely a stroke of adversity,” Slayton said this week. “It’s definitely something that I had to deal with, something I had to overcome. But, ultimately, it’s not somewhere that I hadn’t been prior to that and, hopefully, not again in football. But maybe in some other avenue of life, I’ll be in a similar predicament.

“I’m just happy I’m on the other side of it now, and it’ll be a good life experience going forward.”

When the Giants kick off their 2023 season on Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys, New York won’t bury Slayton on the bench this time after signing him to a two-year, $12 million contract in March.

“I’d say his ability to really just be laser-focused on his job and improving every day really helped us throughout the season,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “Got him back, and he’s been a very good teammate. I think he’s improved in a number of areas, understands the system better, has some good leadership traits about him, particularly with some of those younger receivers, and happy to have him. …

“All of us, we’re going to hit adversity, whether that’s in a game, during the season, maybe a play and just to keep forging ahead with focus on the next play, the next day, trying to improve, that’s not an easy thing to do.”

Last season, Slayton had an 11-yard reception to show for the first four games. He ended up with 46 receptions for 724 yards and two touchdowns.

“I think I’m in a positive place,” Slayton said about the start of the 2023 season, “and I think I’ve put together a strong camp. I worked really hard this offseason to better myself in any way or shape and form I can, and I plan to try to display that to the best of my ability this season.”

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New York squeezed into the playoffs with an 8-7-1 regular-season record last season, and Slayton had four receptions for 88 yards in the Giants’ 31-24 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Jan. 15 — New York’s first postseason win since it defeated the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012.

Slayton is expecting the Giants to build on that in 2023.

“I definitely think they did a good job of adding talent to our team,” Slayton said. “There are the obvious guys like (inside linebacker) Bobby Okereke on defense, (former Oxford High School star) Bobby McCain, the veteran safety. Obviously, you know we added the two young corners as well. On offense, we’ve got (wide receiver) Jalin (Hyatt), (tight end) Darren (Waller), and (running back) Eric Gray. Then (center) John Michael (Schmitz Jr.), who’s had a really good camp for us up front, so I think they did a good job of accumulating talent and adding guys that would boost our team.”

New York and Dallas will square off at 7:20 p.m. CDT Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. NBC will televise the game.

During the 2022 season, Slayton broke into the top 10 for NFL receiving yards among Auburn alumni. He finished the season in seventh place with 2,554 receiving yards.

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Three former Auburn players have recorded 1,000-yard receiving seasons in the NFL – Red Phillips for the Los Angeles Rams in 1961, Lionel James for the San Diego Chargers in 1985 and Frank Sanders for the Arizona Cardinals in 1997 and 1998.

“I think every receiver would love to be able to say, one day when I retire, I’m old and my knees don’t work anymore, I can tell my kids I had a 1,000-yard NFL season at one point,” Slayton said. “It’s a nice benchmark to have. But, obviously, to get there, you got to start with Game 1 first, so I just take it one week, one day at a time.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.