Last week the Lions and cornerback Darius Slay agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension worth $50.2 million. That contract makes him the seventh highest paid cornerback in the NFL.
Slay, a three-year veteran, had one year left on his rookie contract. This deal will keep him in a Lions uniform until 2020.
Slay said earlier this offseason that he considers himself a top seven cornerback in the league and now he’ll be paid like one.
And if you look at Slay’s advanced stats, the Lions might be getting a steal. Pro Football Focus ranked Slay as their second best cornerback for last year, one spot behind Arizona’s Tyrann Mathieu. However Mathieu plays primarily against slot receivers while Slay plays outside the numbers.
The Lions have been looking for a shutdown corner pretty much since the franchise was founded and it looks like they finally have their guy in Slay. The former second rounder has held down the starting role the past two years and should do so for a long time.
Slay tends to stick on a team’s number one receiver, unlike the Seahawks Richard Sherman who gets a lot of press for locking down one side of the field and staying on that side of the field.
Slay is the anchor of Lions defensive backs, with the other cornerback spot being left open after the retirement of Slay’s mentor, Rashean Mathis and the strong safety spot also being up for grabs this preseason. Slay is going to have to hold down his side of the field.
Fighting for that strong safety position is Tavon Wilson and rookie Miles Killebrew. Wilson was primarily a special teams player in his time with New England and Killebrew is sure to face a large learning curve when making the jump from the Big Sky conference at Southern Utah to the NFL.
At the other cornerback position you have Nevin Lawson, who was drafted the same year as Slay, who is going to try and hold off Alex Carter for the other cornerback slot.
So that leaves Slay and Glover Quin as the only members of the defensive back crew who have played extensively in the NFL. Quin is going to have to step in the leadership role that Mathis left but Slay is going to have to carry the bulk of the workload for the defensive backs.
If he can be the shutdown corner he was last year and allow the Quin and whoever ends up being the strong safety to help out the other cornerback, defensive backfield will be in great shape.
But if he regresses to his form in 2014, when he was in the 20-25 range in terms of cornerbacks, the Lions defense is going to struggle. 2014 was the first year that Slay was the starting cornerback for the whole season.
The defense is going to usher in five new starters this season and Slay should provide some stability at the back end of that defense as the defense settles in. Slay might in fact be the most important defender the Lions have this year.
