Darius Slay got paid today by the Detroit Lions!
The Detroit Lions and Cornerback Darius Slay have reach a four year – $50.2 million dollar contract extension that includes $23 million in guaranteed money according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.
CB Darius Slay and Detroit Lions agreed to a 4-year extension worth $50.2N with $23M fully guaranteed at signing, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 29, 2016
Darius Slay and Lions agreement to four-year, $50.2M extension with $23M fully guaranteed at signing per source.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 29, 2016
This is huge news for the Detroit Lions, who have signed their top young Cornerback, who was set to hit the free agent market after the 2016 season.
According to Pro Football Focus, who’s player ratings are the industry standard, rated Slay as the second best Cornerback in the entire NFL last year, trailing only Tyrann Matiheu. Mathieu may be re-classified as a Safety, meaning that Slay would be rated the best Cornerback in the NFL, ahead of bigger names like Richard Sherman, Patrick Peterson, and Josh Norman heading into the 2016 season.
Darius Slay, 25, will still make his $976,269 per the last year of his rookie deal this season and then the new contract extension will kick in for the 2017 season. Darius Slay made 59 tackles in 2015 with two interceptions and 13 pass defenses.
This is a very nice signing by Bob Quinn and the Detroit Lions Organization. Considering the dollars thrown at Josh Norman this past off season, the Detroit Lions would have had many bidders to compete for Darius Slay’s services had he hit the free agent market after this season. They likely saved quite a bit of money by getting this deal done today.