Philadelphia Eagles: Sorry for ever doubting you, Darius Slay

One of the hot topics coming out of the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was the subpar play of Jonathan Gannon‘s defense.

Sure, some players have seen their on-field play revolutionized by Gannon’s scheme – just ask Avonte Maddox and Javon Hargrave – but overall, the defensive line hasn’t been particularly game-changing, the defensive backfield has been average at best, and the linebacking corps has been rough to put it kindly.

And, for whatever reason, one player who drew particular ire from the angry digital mob was Darius Slay, Philly’s lockdown cornerback.

While some comically suggested that Slay is either washed or outright bad, the general consensus was that the collegiate Bulldog hasn’t quite lived up to his “Big Play” nickname since leaving the shores of the Great Lakes for the City of Brotherly Love.

With the season rapidly coming off the rails and Slay’s trade value a whole lot higher than Stephon Gilmore, debates heated up over whether or not the three-time Pro Bowler still had a spot in the team’s future moving forward.

… something tells me those conversations are effectively over, as Darius Slay balled the heck out against the Carolina Panthers and near single-handedly snapped the Philadelphia Eagles’ three-game losing streak.

Darius Slay proved he’s still the Philadelphia Eagles’ best defensive playmaker.

Over the last decade, only four members of the Philadelphia Eagles have recorded multiple interceptions in a single game.

Malcolm Jenkins did it once in 2016, as did DRC in 2012. Kurt Coleman, who now serves as a color commentator for the Carolina Panthers, actually did it twice, in September of 2012 and almost a decade ago to the day in 2011.

Fortunately for fans in the City of Brotherly Love, Darius Slay can now add his name to that illustrious list after making Sam Darnold’s life a darn nightmare in the home of the NFL’s only virtual reality-based Panther.

To call Slay dominant in Week 5 would be an understatement. He doubled his 2020 interception total in a single afternoon, held down the right side of the field, and only allowed 42 yards on seven catches to the Panthers’ top receiver, D.J. Moore.

Let’s just say, when offensive coordinator Joe Brady starts deploying his best wide receiver out of the backfield to avoid Slay, you know things are going well.

Now granted, Slay hasn’t poorly played per se so far this season. Through the first five games of the season, he’s surrendered 16 catches on 23 targets for 145 yards and two touchdowns. While that may seem like a lot, Slay is actually on-pace to finish out the season with his fewest catches allowed since 2017 and is giving up his fewest yards per completion since that tenure, too.

Needless to say, if Slay can pick off a few more passes, he’ll be a borderline shoo-in to make it back to the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2019.

But wait, it gets better. While Slay may still be the Eagles’ best cornerback from an external perspective, he’s actually been outplayed by Avonte Maddox in 2021, who is in the midst of an absolute breakout season. With two premier cornerbacks and a third, Steven Nelson, playing far better than many a fan will give him credit for, the Eagles have seemingly cracked the code to having a competent NFL secondary for the first time in years.

Sidebar II: Who’d have ever guessed that playing players in their natural position would breed better results? Everyday miracles, folks.

Who knows, maybe Week 6 will dream a cruel reality check to the Philadelphia Eagles’ secondary, and the online tribalism will once again break out around Darius Slay’s status moving forward, but after waiting nine years for a cornerback to record two interceptions in the same game, something tells me this should buy Mr. Big Play a season’s worth of goodwill and more than a few apologies from the online haters.