Chalk Talk: Darius Slay still shuts down in man coverage

Chalk Talk: Darius Slay still shuts down in man coverage

Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of Chalk Talk here in the DK Pittsburgh Sports Steelers YouTube channel. Uh Darius Slay, there’s been still a lot of conversation about just his age, how much does he have left in the tank, is this Patrick Peterson 2.0? And I just I I don’t understand, you know, I think just some people just want to look at the age and not look at anything else. The guy can still cover, man. And and it’s just a fact. Um yeah, like that that could be the whole video that end right here. Um, no, but but seriously, uh, last year, according to NFL NextGen stats, among all defenders who saw at least 30 targets, and that includes the playoffs, he had the third best completion percentage against when he was in man coverage. Only Kamari Lacer and Dererick Stingley had better completion percentage allowed. the guy can still cover. Just because he’s not turning in the interceptions doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ball skills. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t force incompletions, which is the ultimate job of a defensive back is to make sure that passes aren’t completed. And Slay, I got three plays, you know, showing right here what he’s capable of still at his age. And the fact that he doesn’t do it in the in the normal press coverage way, like when you think press, you know, man coverage, you you think, okay, Joey Porter Jr. lining up smack, you know, just right it right up in the guy’s face and he’s just going to run with him the entire way. And Slay can still do that to a certain extent. Remember when Slay was coming out of college, he was like one of the fastest guys in the NFL. And you know, here you got Puka Nua moving in motion. Nua when we’re talking about these type of routes where he, you know, does this little motion that he’s running this crosser over like he’s this is almost money for the Rams and Slay right here is on him and the entire time Nua has the leverage on him that he wants, you know, because he’s running this crosser. So, he wants to have the inside leverage, which he has on Slay, and Slay’s just able to run with him the whole way. And I I think Stafford just expects Nua to get open because again, this is money for the Rams. They they do this stuff all the time where he just runs this little intermediate crosser and Stafford just can rely on him to be there and Slay’s just with him the whole time and he gets the pass break up. You know, he he forces that incompletion. Again, this is Pukanakua. This is not like some sort of scrub receiver number three guy. This is a guy who’s just catching balls left and right for one of the better offenses and definitely one of the best offensive minds in the game, you know. And again, you can see the whole time Nua, he’s doing this thing where he moves in motion. He’s running the crosser and the whole time he wants to make sure that he has this inside leverage on Slay who’s right there. And that’s exactly what he has. I mean, he’s Slay never bumps him. Never. This is literally just I’m going to catch up. I’m going to take And it’s also about the angle, right? He doesn’t go too wide where he then starts to run with him, you know, and he’s just kind of running with him. He really tries to like cut this angle off. And you still have to have some sort of speed in order to catch Puka running in in in in motion like running with like coming out of motion and everything. And he’s able to get his hand up there. Now he may not actually actually he doesn’t even get his hand on it. And it’s not the best throw, but you can definitely tell the coverage forces that throw to have to be in a certain spot. Stafford can’t just put it, you know, right on the numbers because Slay’s right there. And with Slay putting his hand right there, that affects Puka’s ability to catch the football and forces the incomp completion. Again, what’s the primary job of a corner? Make sure that the guy you’re covering, especially if you’re in man coverage, doesn’t catch the football. You know, good stuff. Anyway, um this play right here, one of the few times you’ll see Slay line up in the slot. You know, there are some people are like, “Well, at his age, can he move to the slot?” Like, listen, last year, according to Pro Football Focus, he lined up in the slot a grand total of five times out of um how many total snaps did he play? He played 946 snaps. um 625 in coverage, but either way, 946 snaps, 856 of those nine, 946, he was lined up on the outside. 79 times he was in the box, five times in the slot. He’s not in the slot very often. And he hasn’t been a slot guy um for for most of his career. I mean, yeah, he’s got 457 total. The most he most he ever did was in 2019. No, sorry, 20, yeah, 2019. Uh, as a member of the Lions, his last year with the Lions and he saw a resurgence once he went to Philadelphia. So, this guy, and again, he shows, you know, he’s not right up on them, you know, pressing them, you know, he’s playing off. And so you might think, oh well, you know, if you’re playing off, you know, you have, you know, there’s more room for the receiver to to make the catch. But there are other ways to force incompletions than just pressing the guy and running with him because Leette is just running this quick little slant right here. Now, this ball needs to come out a little bit faster. He needs to come out like there and he kind of holds and double clutches and then he then he throws. So that’s on Bryce Young. He needs to get rid of the ball quicker. Uh, but once Slay sees the break, I mean, look at that reaction time. Like foot in the ground turning to the inside. Slay is breaking on it, you know, and the ball’s coming out and that’s great. And you’d think, oh, well, that’s too much room, you know, you’re you’re not you’re not able to close in fast enough. Well, it also matters that you know how to attack the ball once it’s already in the grasp of the receivers’s hands, which Slay obviously knows how to do. He’s been doing this since 2013 in at the NFL level. And he does that very well here. You can see, you know, again, you know, I I think Young, he like that little glance over to to that side doesn’t like that that forces him like that ball needed to come out a lot faster. This is just this is not good quarterbacking here. Um, but you can see here, you know, the ball is caught right there. Okay, nice secured. You know, didn’t have to bring it in. But this right hand here of Slay, you know, it’s getting it’s that motion right there. Corners practice this stuff. And an experienced cornerback like Slay knows how to attack a receiver so that even after the ball’s already in his hands, he can still force an incompletion and get a pass break up, which is exactly what he does there. It just looks like he’s wrapping him up to tackle. That is that is very very much on purpose. That’s not just trying to wrap and drive. That is getting the arm around in a certain way where you’re almost kind of doing this hammer because the other arm isn’t doing that. The left arm isn’t doing that as much. The right arm is because that’s where the ball is. And so he’s going to do everything he can to not just hit and make contact and forcible contact, but to also bring the arm in and and swing it in around so that you have a chance to knock the ball out, which is exactly what he does. Good stuff from Slay there. And again, Slay, like Slay is is another example of you don’t have to be right up on a guy in order to play successful man coverage because Slay’s right here. And with the way that this is lined up defensively, it looks like they’re they’re they’re in zone. And especially after the receiver comes in motion over here, nobody moves over. You know, that’s McLaren moving over and he gets set. And now you’re thinking, okay, this is just this is a zone a zone coverage, you know, whatever it is. Maybe they’re in cover two and this safety will go back. They’re actually in man. This is just man across the board. Got man, you got man. Like this is just man. And so Slay is right here on the number one. And again, when with receivers, what they want to do is to make sure that they have the leverage that they need for whatever route they’re running. This receiver is running a dig right here. So, he wants to have the inside leverage over Slay. And Slay almost gives it to him. Now, why would a corner do that? Well, number one, you have no help outside. You got one deep safety. you have no help to the outside. So, you want to make sure that no matter what you if he’s running some sort of like, you know, post corner that you don’t get beat to the outside. You would much rather force him to the inside. Even if you’re not the one to break the pass up, maybe, you know, this linebacker sitting in the middle can help break the pass up or intercept it or something. You always want to force the receiver to where your help is. And that’s exactly what he does by by staying outside of him. Now, it is still man coverage. And once he sees him break to the inside, that’s when Slay turns on the Jets and he runs this down. It’s not the greatest throw. Probably needs to be a little bit more out in front of him, but Slay again still has impressive closing speed for a guy who was 33 years old last year. and he’s able to get the get his hand in front and break the pass up and that’s that’s that man like like yeah it’s not rocket science when it comes again I think some people just look at the age and think 34 can’t move the way he used to you know doesn’t play a lot in press and when he does play in press he doesn’t do as well because there is a little bit of truth to that no he doesn’t move the same way he did when he was 24. Obviously, no 34 year old moves the same way they did when they were 24. But it doesn’t mean he can’t move anymore. He’s still able to run. He still has good closing speed and his instincts and his reaction time are still elite because he does a lot of homework. He does a lot of film study and he knows he he better anticipates what’s coming because of the blend of experience that he has along with the his fervent dedication to doing film uh film room work and understanding the opponent and knowing what the opponent’s going to bring. And he still does enough on the field to break passes up. And throw this in as well. The Steelers aren’t going to be asking him to be their number one guy. Joey Porter Jr., that’s his job. His job is still going to be following around the number one most of the time. Like, he’s the press guy. He’s the guy who’s going to go up against the number one and press him and shut him down. And Porter still does a good job of that. Slay, he’s going to be facing the number two quite a bit, you know. So, I think this is and especially when you add in the fact that the Steelers added Jaylen Ramsay, this is going to be a defense that probably does a a lot more man coverage, especially maybe in like third down and stuff like that because last year the Steelers were near the bottom of the league in third down man coverage usage. So, we’ll see how it plays out, but Slay still a really, really good, dare I even say elite man coverage corner. That’ll be it for this one. Tomorrow, start of training camp. Well, kind of. Players are reporting to training camp, but still I’ll be in LRO. I’m excited for it. You should be, too. Lot of coverage coming from uh St. Vincent College over the next three weeks. Super stoked about it. But either way, till next time. Catch you guys later. See you. [Applause]

In this episode of Chalk Talk, Chris Halicke breaks down film of Darius Slay from the 2024 season.

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