{"id":53214,"date":"2025-12-05T18:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53214\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:29:12","slug":"ex-steelers-cb-darius-slay-opens-up-about-split-with-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/53214\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Steelers CB Darius Slay Opens Up About Split with Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay in a game against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 2, 2025. — Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Steelers parted ways with veteran cornerback Darius Slay in a move that was reported to be a mutual decision this week. Slay has since opened up about what exactly led to his departure from the Steel City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little mutual decision, man,\u201d Slay said<\/a> on the \u201cSpeakeasy\u201d podcast. \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 didn\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 has since been claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Bills. However, he is now unsure if he wants to continue playing football and will not be reporting to Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlay is honored that a first-class organization like the Bills claimed him, but he is going to take some time away from football right now and decide in the next few days if he wants to keep playing,\u201d Slay\u2019s agent, Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN.<\/p>\n

While some had speculated that the 34-year-old was hoping to land back in Philadelphia, he said it was completely a personal decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been missing out a lot of my kids\u2019 activities. Shoot man, mostly it\u2019s a family decision kind of to it. We\u2019ll just see how it goes, though,\u201d Slay continued. \u201cI\u2019m not saying 1,000 [percent], but your boy is on that borderline sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 16, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

Slay was brought to Pittsburgh with the anticipation of him being a starting cornerback for the Steelers this season, but he lost that role, and even lost his slot on the active roster last week.<\/p>\n

He started each of the first nine games of the season, but a concussion suffered against the Los Angeles Chargers on Nov. 9 kept him out of the following week\u2019s game. Veteran backup James Pierre replaced Slay, and he played well in his absence.<\/p>\n

Tomlin then said that Slay would resume his starting role after coming out of the concussion protocol for the team\u2019s Week 12 game against the Chicago Bears. However, Pierre instead started, with Slay playing just 22 snaps in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Last week against the Buffalo Bills, Slay was a healthy scratch while Asante Samuel Jr. was promoted from the practice squad.<\/p>\n

Slay spent the last five years with the Eagles as a starting outside cornerback. He started 14 games for Philly last regular season, plus another four on the Eagles\u2019 run to their\u00a0Super Bowl LIX championship<\/a>. He finished the regular season with 49 tackles, three tackles for loss, 13 passes defended and one forced fumble. Slay also had an interception in the Eagles\u2019 Wild Card win over the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n

Slay came to the Eagles in 2020, when current Steelers assistant general manager\u00a0Andy Weidl<\/a>\u00a0was the Philadelphia vice president of player personnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before his time with Philly, Slay spent seven seasons with the Detroit Lions, who selected him out of Mississippi State in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Slay has been a six-time Pro Bowler and was a first-team All-Pro with the Lions in 2017, when he led the NFL in interceptions.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Darius Slay<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay in a game against the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 2, 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3282,73,75,74,1833,1829],"class_list":{"0":"post-53214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-darius-slay","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","11":"tag-pittsburgh-news","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-steelers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}