Update: Darby was traded to Philadelphia in exchange for Jordan Matthews and draft picks. You can read more here.

Going into the 2015 NFL Draft, Buffalo was absent from the Thursday night party. This was all brought to you by the often-criticized move to trade up for Sammy Watkins the year prior, which deducted the Bills of their first round pick in 2015.

After the strange grace period of not picking in the first round, which hadn’t been seen in Buffalo since 2005, the Bills selected Florida State cornerback Ronald Darby with the No. 51 overall pick.

Darby was selected during a time in the now-defunct Doug Whaley era in which Whaley lived by taking the best player on the board.

Well, as we can see how the fairly recent events have shaken up the Buffalo front office, the strategy has been put to rest, hopefully for a long time.

The breakout year

Coming into the 2015 season, Darby looked poised to replace Leodis McKelvin and start alongside Stephon Gilmore.

It appeared the Bills had done it again. They had standout cornerbacks on both sides of the defense, a new, loud barking head coach in Rex Ryan, and hype that resonated from the field to the living room, causing Buffalo to set a new record for season tickets.

It wasn’t seen as a gap or rebuilding year because of Doug Marrone jumping ship and swimming to Jacksonville, but more of a revitalization period and Rex Ryan led the new hope.

Darby quickly made his way into the starting lineup a couple weeks into the season and didn’t look back.

He started 15 games his first year, made 61 tackles, and had himself two interceptions.

Even with the strong defensive rookie class, Darby was getting noticed nationally. He was in the running for defensive rookie of the year head-to-head with Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters.

Although Darby didn’t receive the honor by the AP or other major outlets, he was however named this by the stat-crunching, analytics-based people of Pro Football Focus.

The wind’s out of the sails

Season two for Darby wasn’t quite the same.

A year plagued by job uncertainty of the head coach and a loss of momentum was a major distraction throughout the majority of the season.

Buffalo started the season cold and not even a four-game winning streak could spark a fire for the Bills.

Stephon Gilmore, Buffalo’s top cornerback, was seen barking at teammates more than he was seen making pass deflections or interceptions.

Darby saw a decrease in productivity. His passes defended dropped from 21 all the way to 12. The second-year player was plagued by multiple injuries throughout the year and his firm grip as a starter was slipping after a tremendous rookie season.

The Buffalo pass defense slid from being ranked 19th overall to 27th.

Near the end of the 7-9 season, Rex Ryan was canned.

Stephon Gilmore left the Bills for New England. Aaron Williams was released.

The once promising defense was being re-shuffled and again a new regime would start to process over again.

The future.

During the 2017 NFL Draft, the Bills looked to fill the whole in the secondary left by Stephon Gilmore.

Buffalo selected Tre’Davious White late in the first round and appear to have themselves a starter.

Coming into the 2017 season, the Bills look to be a somewhat revitalized. Not in the same way that came with the hiring of Rex Ryan but in a concrete, foundation-building way.

Buffalo hired Sean McDermott, a defensive-minded coach, who they plucked from the Andy Reid coaching tree.

The Bills acquired Leslie Frazier to run the defense. He most recently was a secondary coach with Baltimore and hopes to gem well with the fresh secondary.

Frazier and McDermott will together provide a defensive plan which doesn’t cause mass confusion like his predecessor, but rather keeps things simple. It’ll be a shift in philosophy Darby hasn’t seen yet in Buffalo.

With White coming in and time and patience running out in Western New York, the time has come for Ronald Darby to step up.

It’s time to step up and show that he is better than how looked last year. It’s time to show that he is the player Doug Whaley saw as the best available.

In a secondary, so new and fresh, Darby has the opportunity to show his leadership ability right away and lead them forward.

Related 3 reasons why DC Leslie Frazier is a perfect fit for Bills defense

Gilmore wasn’t there when you needed him most and decided to skip town. It’s now Darby’s chance to buck the trend and embrace the “one vision” philosophy implemented by Sean McDermott to help lead the Bills back to the playoffs.

It comes down to whether or not he wants this role or if he wants to lay down and give up. The choice is his and I hope he’ll do what’s needed to win and win now.