{"id":577379,"date":"2025-12-05T07:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/577379\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T07:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T07:17:11","slug":"cb-darius-slay-explains-mutual-departure-from-pittsburgh-why-he-didnt-report-to-buffalo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/577379\/","title":{"rendered":"CB Darius Slay Explains ‘Mutual’ Departure From Pittsburgh, Why He Didn’t Report To Buffalo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Super Bowl champion veteran or rookie, every player released this time of year is subject to waivers. For Darius Slay, that meant being claimed by the Buffalo Bills after the Pittsburgh Steelers waived him earlier this week. But Slay opted against reporting<\/a> while he considers his football future. In his first interview since being cut, claimed, and declining to appear, Slay explained his situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little mutual decision, man,\u201d Slay told Speakeasy\u2019s Emmanuel Acho of leaving Pittsburgh in an interview posted shortly after midnight Friday.<\/a> \u201cMe and [Mike Tomlin] chopped it up. We just thought that was what\u2019s best for us. Much respect to Mike T and that organization. It just ain\u2019t pan out as it needed to be. It was all good, though. No bad blood with it. He\u2019s a great dude, great coach. He did me the right way and 13 years in, we had a great understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slay\u2019s intent was to finish his career in Pittsburgh. But he struggled to fit in a Steelers\u2019 scheme that intended to run more man coverage. With tired 34-year-old legs, Slay was exposed and too often beat in coverage while struggling as a tackler. Thanks to James Pierre\u2019s career year, Slay\u2019s role slowly reduced before becoming a full-on backup in Week 12 and healthy scratch in Week 13. Slay said he took no offense to being sat down.<\/p>\n

Signed earlier this year, the Steelers got a look at Asante Samuel Jr. against the Bills and added him to the roster in place of Slay.<\/p>\n

While Samuel effectively took Slay\u2019s job, there\u2019s no ill-will from Slay\u2019s corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s amazing man, by the way,\u201d he said of Samuel. \u201cHe gonna be balling, for sure. I\u2019m glad to see him back in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buffalo and Philadelphia put in claims on Slay. With a grin, Slay said he wasn\u2019t sure if he would\u2019ve reported to the Eagles had they been awarded him. But it sure seems like there was a much better chance. Now a father with a family, living out of a suitcase in a new city for the final months of the season is more difficult than early in his career. Slay noted had this situation occurred five years ago, he would\u2019ve gone to Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been missing out a lot of my kids activities,\u201d Slay said. \u201cShoot man, mostly it\u2019s a family decision kind of to it. We\u2019ll just see how it goes though, but I\u2019m gonna take it day-by-day. I just left my son\u2019s basketball game. I ain\u2019t see him play basketball because last couple times in Philly or whatever, I\u2019m deep into the playoffs all into February. By that time, his season is over\u2026that weighs on me heavy. That was a big thing with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slay thanked Tomlin for allowing him to attend a handful of his son\u2019s games throughout the season, even when that meant missing the occasional practice.\u00a0Slay also joked that Buffalo is \u201ccold as hell\u201d and makes for a less-appealing destination, though he praised the organization and its consistent winning seasons.<\/p>\n

Though he failed to report, the Bills still hold Slay\u2019s rights. He can\u2019t voluntarily go sign elsewhere. He could ask Buffalo to release his rights in the hopes of landing somewhere like Philadelphia. But first, Slay is mapping out his future and if football still has a place in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying 1,000 [percent],\u201d Slay said of his retirement certainty. \u201cBut your boy is so on that borderline sitting here just chilling.\u201d<\/p>\n

He backtracked those comments to call himself \u201c50\/50\u201d of playing again but throughout the interview, seemed to strongly hint he was enjoying his time at home. If this is the end, Slay\u2019s enjoyed a terrific career even if his time in Pittsburgh, and Buffalo, will become just minor footnotes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Bowl champion veteran or rookie, every player released this time of year is subject to waivers. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048],"tags":[215,214,53,2086,9313,1245,7,6,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-577379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-buffalo-bills","8":"tag-bills","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-buffalo-bills","11":"tag-buffalobills","12":"tag-darius-slay","13":"tag-emmanuel-acho","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115665741285285083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}