The Bills are banking on Darby putting his sophomore slump behind him.

“When I evaluated Darby in college, I saw the ability, and then I watched his first year from afar, albeit, and the impact he had as a first year player, and then I watched him on tape last year once I got into the building,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I’m really seeing a player that’s ready to get back to, to playing the way he did his first year; And really, taking his game to another level, and that’s, that deals with preparation, consistency, understanding the game a little bit more as you, as we all gain experience, with experience comes awareness.

‘That’s really the next step for him. I love the way he’s taking, has taken a mindset, an approach, an attitude of buying into the system and what we’re asking our corners to do. The big part of that for us which I love, that I believe he inherently has, we believe he inherently has is the physical approach, that we ask our corners to tackle. That goes a long way.”

The analytics would seem to back that up, too. Darby ranked as PFF’s second-best cornerback in run support in what was an otherwise down 2016.