Darius Slay's late-season move to Buffalo might prove to be an exit.
The veteran defensive back has informed the Bills he is contemplating retirement and will not report to the team after Buffalo claimed Slay via waivers earlier this week, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported on Thursday.
The Bills will retain Slay's rights should the veteran decide he would like to play again this season, Pelissero added.
Slay, 34, was cut by the Steelers on Tuesday after 10 games with the team, freeing him to latch on with another squad to finish the 2025 season. Slay was a healthy scratch for Pittsburgh's Week 13 loss to the Bills.
Buffalo added the six-time Pro Bowler, welcoming in an experienced defender as a depth piece ahead of their stretch run to the playoffs, but it appears Slay might not be interested in making such an effort to close his 13th NFL season.
It shouldn't come as a complete surprise. Just weeks after winning Super Bowl LIX with the Eagles, Slay publicly laid out his plans, stating he aimed to play one more season and hoped to do it in either Philadelphia or Detroit, the only two teams he'd played for prior to 2025.
He instead landed in Pittsburgh, where his decline proved precipitous. Early season struggles in the Steelers' defense -- most notably seen in Pittsburgh's shootout loss to Joe Flacco and the Bengals -- proved he was largely unplayable in zone coverage and wasn't nearly as effective in man coverage, either, surrendering an opposing passer rating of 106.3 as the nearest defender in man coverage in 2025. Pro Football Focus handed him a coverage grade of 58.6 for the season, ranking him 71st out of 110 eligible cornerbacks.
With the Steelers floundering, Pittsburgh released Slay and added veteran receiver Adam Thielen this week, swapping well-traveled veterans and leaving Slay to find a new home.
At this point, it seems he could be tired of the entire experience.
Slay entered the league as the 36th overall pick of the 2013 draft out of Mississippi State, proving himself as a difference-making cornerback for the Lions who was deserving of three Pro Bowl nods, a first-team All-Pro selection (2017) and a fitting nickname: Big Play Slay. A dispute with former Lions coach Matt Patricia prompted Detroit to trade Slay to Philadelphia in 2020, where he continued to thrive, racking up three more Pro Bowl honors and playing a key part in defenses coordinated by Jim Schwartz, Jonathan Gannon and Vic Fangio.
After filling an important role in Gannon's defense during the Eagles' run to Super Bowl LVII, Slay began to show signs of his age in his final two seasons with the Eagles, a reality general manager Howie Roseman prepared for by spending his first two picks in the 2024 draft on defensive backs. Slay remained a starter for Philadelphia through their run to Super Bowl LIX and openly expressed a desire to finish his career with the Eagles, but the business side of the sport prevented him from doing so, leading Philadelphia to release Slay in early 2025.
We'll see if his brief Steelers tenure is Slay's final chapter, a quiet finale for a player who certainly wasn't afraid to speak his mind on or off the field.
