Despite being the NFL’s top coverage defender last season with a 44.2% allowed completion percentage, per Pro Football Reference, Ronald Darby signed a two-year contract with Jacksonville in March including only $5.5 million in total guarantees, a figure that ranks No. 52 among cornerbacks.
Accordingly, CBS analyst Zachary Pereles believes Darby is flying under the radar as next season approaches.
Identifying 50 such players “who could shape the 2024 season,” Pereles noted Darby’s dominance in coverage and how it should benefit the Jaguars’ entire secondary after joining the team via free agency in March.
Quietly, Darby has been excellent over the past two seasons, allowing just a 46.7% completion percentage when he’s the primary coverage defender. The only two players who have been better are [Cleveland’s Martin] Emerson and [New York Jets cornerback Sauce] Gardner, who is too good and too well known to be on this list. Darby hasn’t picked off a pass since 2019, but he is very steady, and that’s a boost for an up-and-down Jacksonville secondary.
Joining Darby on Pereles’ list of cornerbacks were Emerson, Miami’s Kendall Fuller, Pittsburgh’s Donte Jackson, Kansas City’s Jaylen Watson and Joshua Williams, Chicago’s Tyrique Stevenson and New Orleans’ Kool-Aid McKinstry.
Paired with posting the NFL’s lowest coverage completion percentage with Baltimore in 2023, Darby recorded 28 tackles and seven pass breakups over 16 appearances and seven starts.
In five games with Denver in 2022, before tearing his right ACL, Darby gave up a 38.9% completion percentage and logged 14 tackles, three defended passes and one forced fumble.
Darby has kept his coverage completion percentage below 55% for four consecutive seasons, making 48 appearances in that stretch.
In his nine-season NFL career, Darby has accumulated eight interceptions, 97 defended passes, one forced fumble, and 401 total tackles including nine for loss.
Darby is expected to start opposite Tyson Campbell at cornerback for Jacksonville this year. He will replace Darious Williams, who the Jaguars released in March.
