Darius Slay Hopes for Certain Role with Steelers Defensive Backs
The Pittsburgh Steelers brought Darius Slay in as a free-agent acquisition to upgrade their secondary. The six-time Pro Bowl cornerback hopes his impact with the team is much more far-reaching. During his introductory Steelers press conference on March 13, Slay talked about how he plans to mentor the team’s younger covermen, a group that includes Joey Porter Jr., Beanie Bishop, and Cory Trice.
“It’s gonna be great, man, I love that,” Slay said. “That’s the best part of my job. I love meeting new people. You know, some people don’t like meeting new folks. … I’m very outgoing, and that’s one of the biggest roles I would like to take, just helping mentoring younger guys because a guy did that for me. So, I always gotta return the favor in my way, and that’s how I do it.
“And I do it with genuine love, not by force. It’s because I want them to be great. I want them to always be better than me. Any guy I ever had under me, my job is try to make sure they’ll be better than me, as a player, person, everything.”
Rod Woodson Mentored Darius Slay
Slay, a 13th-year professional, said that he’d always heard good things about the Steelers from Patrick Peterson, who spent 2023 with the team. Additionally, Joe Haden was one of Slay’s favorite cornerbacks when Slay was younger, and Rod Woodson had taken Slay under his wing early in his career.
“When I got drafted, I stayed at his house for about a month and a half, learned football from him,” Slay said of Woodson, widely regarded as the Steelers’ most talented cornerback ever. “We had the same agent, Eugene Parker. … He introduced me to him, and that’s how he kind of drawed me to sign with him, too. He had a lot of guys I looked up to in his game. He had Deion (Sanders), Rod, and a couple of other guys I used to look up to.”
Woodson played for the Steelers from 1987-96. He was a first-team Associated Press (AP) All-Pro seven times in Pittsburgh. He earned the AP’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 1993. Woodson advised Slay to stay healthy and introduced him to different formations and route recognitions. The two worked together on the track, as well.