Next Big Thing: The Re-Education of Bills Cornerback Ronald Darby

Ronald Darby has nothing to worry about when he steps onto a football field. But that doesn’t keep the pregame butterflies away.

“I’m a little nervous before each game,” he admitted. 

Make no mistake: Darby is never intimidated, even when facing Odell Beckham Jr. or Brandon Marshall. But he has always dealt with locker-room jitters. Even in college, when his Florida State Seminoles rarely had much to worry about. “It’s like I can’t even help it,” he said. “Even when we were playing a D-1AA school, I was still nervous.”

“It’s probably because of the fact that there are thousands of people watching,” Darby explained. “I always get that nervous feeling.”

Darby had every reason to be nervous as a rookie starting cornerback last year in Buffalo. Teams challenged him from the moment he stepped on the field in the preseason. He responded to those challenges with 21 pass breakups, two interceptions, All-Rookie notice and a spot on the league’s All Under-25 team.

So he wasn’t exactly playing scared. Even though he did not know his position well. And he slammed into the rookie wall late in the season.

Darby is healthier and better prepared this year.

Opposing wide receivers are the ones who should be nervous.

    

Seeing the Big Picture

The Bills defense didn’t look good on the practice field. On the injury report, it looked even worse.

It was early August, and while the Bills offense kept getting good news (Sammy Watkins is back! Tyrod Taylor signed an extension!) the defense couldn’t catch a break. First-round pick Shaq Lawson underwent shoulder surgery in May and would not return for weeks. Second-round linebacker Reggie Ragland tore his ACL. The team was scrambling to find linebackers and edge rushers.

Hope for the Bills defense rested with the healthy young secondary, primarily the cornerback tandem of Darby and (25-year-old) Stephon Gilmore. Secondary coach Tim McDonald smiled broadly when asked about the duo. “I truly expect Ronald and Steph Gilmore to be two of the best in the league,” he said.

Gilmore agreed with the assessment. “I think our group is at the top,” he said. “I think we as a group don’t get a lot of credit but I think we play at a high level.”

So it was discouraging to see both cornerbacks struggle in training camp drills. Gilmore gave up a handful of easy touchdowns during my August visit. Earlier in camp, Darby had some noticeably rough outings when matched up against bigger Bills receivers like journeyman Greg Little.

Training camp observations can be highly misleading, however. Head coach Rex Ryan explained that he creates mismatches and bad situations on purpose during training camp. Darby, for instance, was getting an advanced course on covering Dez Bryant-sized receivers in the red zone when he gave up the touchdowns to Little.

“Those are those big bodies and that’s what you’ve got to learn to stop on defense,” Ryan explained. “I know the competitor that [Darby] is,” Ryan added, “so he probably can’t wait to get to practice tomorrow.”

Ryan also drilled his base defense against all sorts of offensive personnel packages—a 4-3 defense against a spread four-receiver formation, for example—to prepare Gilmore and Darby for situations where they might not get safety support.

Darby proved to be an excellent man-to-man cornerback as a rookie last year. He allowed his receivers to catch just 54.3 percent of passes thrown to them, according to Pro Football Focus. Darby, Gilmore and the Bills secondary frustrated stars like Beckham (five catches, 38 yards, zero touchdowns) and Marshall (3-23-1 in Week 10).

But there is more to playing cornerback than just locking down a receiver in man coverage, which is why Bills coaches are teaching their cornerbacks to adapt to unusual circumstances.

“He’s understanding the big picture,” McDonald said of Darby. “It’s not all about man-to-man. Every now and then we’ve gotta play some zone, and you have to be able to see more than just your man.”

“Steph is pretty good at it. Darby’s now getting it. That’s what he’s been working on.”

Darby is eager to learn. “A lot of times last year I would just line up and play,” he said. “I would just play one-on-one. But knowing where your help is coming from and all of that can help you make more plays and be a better player.”

Darby said he spent the offseason working on recognizing formations and tendencies. He worked on pre-snap communication during minicamps.

The trick is to not let the cerebral part of playing cornerback overwhelm the instinctual part. “We want to do it in increments,” McDonald said. “Baby steps. We don’t want to go too far away from what made him special last year.”

That’s a wise policy, because Darby was pretty darn special last year.

   

Turning Heads

Darby was ready for NFL-caliber competition when the Bills drafted him in 2015. At Florida State, he played in a secondary that also featured Jalen Ramsey, LaMarcus Joyner, Terrance Brooks and P.J. Williams, all of whom have been drafted in the first three rounds over the last three years. During any given practice, Darby was likely to cover Kelvin Benjamin or Rashad Greene, with Jameis Winston trying to get them the …

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