Darius Demetrius Slay Jr. is an American football cornerback for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Lions in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft and played college football at Mississippi State.

Slay attended Itawamba Community College before transferring to Mississippi State University.

As a freshman at ICC, Slay earned First Team Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) All-State and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-Region 23 honors after record 41 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 1 sack and forced two fumbles after only playing five games for Coach Jon Williams and the Indians. After his stellar freshman season, he earned JC Gridwire Preseason Second Team All-American honors heading into his sophomore season.During his final season in Fulton, Slay recorded 32 total tackles, 1 tackle for loss, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery while hauling in three catches for 63 yards and a touchdown to earn MACJC First Team All-State honors on defense and special teams after playing in all nine games.

After ICC, he played for head coach Dan Mullen's Mississippi State Bulldogs football team in 2011 and 2012. In his two seasons for Mississippi State, he had 64 tackles, six interceptions, and two touchdowns.

Coming out of Mississippi State, Slay was projected to be a second or third round draft pick by the majority of NFL draft experts and scouts. He received an invitation to the NFL combine and completed all of the required combine and positional drills. On March 6, 2013, Slay participated at Mississippi State's pro day in front of team representatives and scouts from 30 NFL teams. He was ranked as the seventh best cornerback prospect available in the draft by NFL analyst Mike Mayock and was ranked the eighth best cornerback by NFLDraftScout.com.

The Detroit Lions selected Slay in the second round (36th overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft. Slay was the fifth cornerback drafted in 2013, behind Dee Milliner, D. J. Hayden, Desmond Trufant, and Xavier Rhodes.

On July 29, 2016, the Detroit Lions signed Slay to a four-year, $48.15 million contract extension with $23.1 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $14.5 million.

Head coach Jim Caldwell retained Slay and Nevin Lawson as the starting cornerbacks in 2017. On September 18, 2017, Slay recorded a season-high eight combined tackles and two pass deflections during a 24–10 win against the New York Giants. In Week 3, he made five solo tackles, defended two passes, and intercepted two passes by quarterback Matt Ryan during a 30-26 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. He returned one 37 yards as the Lions were defeated by the Falcons 26–30. It was the first game of his career with multiple interceptions in the same game. On December 16, 2017, Slay made five combined tackles, three pass deflections, and intercepted two passes by quarterback Mitchell Trubisky in the Lions' 20–10 win over the Chicago Bears. His performance earned him NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors. His two interceptions gave him the lead for most interceptions seventh interception, while his 27 passes defended also led the league. Slay became the first Lions player with seven interceptions in a season since Glover Quin in 2014, and the first Lions cornerback to do so since Bruce McNorton in 1983. Since 2000, Slay is the only player in the NFL to accumulate five tackles, two interceptions and three pass defenses twice in the same season. On December 20, 2017, it was announced that Slay was selected to play in the 2018 Pro Bowl, marking the first Pro Bowl selection of his career. He started in all 16 games in 2017 and recorded 60 combined tackles (54 solo), a career-high 26 pass deflections, and eight interceptions. His eight interceptions led the league in 2017. Slay was named First-Team All-Pro for the 2017 season. Pro Football Focus gave Slay an overall grade of 80.6, which ranked 16th among all qualifying cornerbacks in 2017.

In Week 14, Slay returned an interception off of quarterback Josh Rosen 67 yards for a touchdown in a 17-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals, earning him NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

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