Darius Slay is one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL, but he won’t be elite forever, and at some point, the Eagles will have to move on.
Such is the business model in the NFL, where younger, cheaper talent eventually replaces older, slower veterans.
Slay is a leader of men.
Rather than focusing all of his efforts on himself, the talented cornerback from Brunswick, Georgia, prefers to pay it forward, pouring all of his knowledge into the younger generation.
Asked recently about who was the next talent to develop for Philadelphia, Slay identified second-year cornerback Zech McPhearson as the player to watch going forward via NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“We’ve been working together this whole offseason and I’ve got a lot of high hopes for him,” Slay said of McPhearson after practice. “He’s just grinding, working hard.
“I’m trying to teach him everything I know because one of these days he’ll be taking my position. That’s the goal for me as a veteran guy. I want a younger guy to be the next me or even better. So my goal is to keep working him.”
The former Texas Tech cornerback is among nine guys competing for the fourth and/or fifth cornerback role, and his 177 snaps down the stretch in 2021 could prove valuable for a player that’ll be needed against high-powered passing offenses.
