Eagles' Darius Slay: Matt Patricia Reunion Has Been 'Cordial' Despite Prior Remarks

Darius Slay and Matt Patricia didn't see eye to eye while together on the Detroit Lions.

But reunited on the Philadelphia Eagles, Slay says things between them have been "cordial."

"It's another day at the office," he told Jenna Malinowski of the Detroit Free Press on Tuesday. "We both got the same goal, just going out there to compete and win a championship, so that's the main focus."

Slay played under Patricia in the 2018 and '19 seasons, when Patricia was Detroit's head coach, and recounted an incident to the Detroit Free Press in 2020, from their first season together, that caused Slay to lose respect for Patricia:

"He told me in front of the whole team, in the team meeting room, showed clips of me in practice getting a ball caught on me or so in practice. I posted a picture (of a wide receiver on social media), and he told me, 'Stop sucking this man's private.' So I'm like, 'Whoa.' I'm like, 'Hold up.' Where I'm from, that don't fly. Cause I wouldn't say that to him. I wouldn't say to him to stop you know what to Bill Belichick. I wouldn't do that. That's just not me as a man. That's disrespectful to me and so from there on it was done with."

Patricia also allegedly told Slay he wasn't an "elite" cornerback, which Slay recounted to reporters in 2020:

"I'm like, 'Huh?' I said, 'Huh.' I'm trying to see where he's coming at. He said I wasn't an elite corner and that I'm not in their category. I was coming off an All-Pro year, eight picks. That told me right there that he didn't have no respect for me. He told me I was a good player, but then to tell me what I'm not, so I said, 'OK.' I just took that to the chin and said, 'OK, that's cool.'"

This offseason, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni hired Patricia to serve as a senior defensive assistant, reuniting Slay with Patricia. At least for now, they are keeping it professional.