By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - With injuries plaguing the Detroit Lions secondary, the emergence of former second-round pick Darius Slay has become more critical than ever to Detroit's success.

Cornerback Bill Bentley went down with an ACL tear in week one, cornerback Nevin Lawson's season ended when he dislocated his toes in week two, and safeties James Ihedigbo and Don Carey both have yet to see the field because of their injuries.

Veteran safety Glover Quin shudders to think where the Lions would be without Slay now.

"I can't imagine it," Quin said. "Don't want to imagine it."

Slay had some trouble staying consistent in his rookie season, and Quin believes confidence has made the difference.

"It shows up ... when you're out there on the field and you're confident in your abilities, you're confident in the scheme, you're confident in playing in the NFL," Quin said. "It's a major thing to be in the NFL playing corner. That's a tough job. And so when you get confident and feel like, 'I can do this, I can be this type of guy, I can do this and do that,' then that makes you play better.

"Then obviously being around us, getting thumped a few times, getting put in a trash can and making him have to fight back and whatever, it shows on the field because he's toughening up a whole lot," Quin continued. "He's tackling well. All that stuff goes into it, and just being more comfortable with the guys, I think all that stuff plays a big role."

Indeed, Slay said he is much more comfortable this season, having fun, staying loose and executing on the field.

"I played pretty good [Sunday], just making plays that I was supposed to make and breaking up a lot of balls," Slay said. "That's what my job is to do, and I came up, made tackles when I needed to. I played pretty good."

Head coach Jim Caldwell sees improvement from Slay and expects that trend to continue as the season progresses.

"Every single week he's getting a little bit better," Caldwell said. "With the number of plays you see in a ball game, when you look at them obviously there's going to be some situations where maybe he's not perfect or where he should be or maybe he gets beat on a particular route or whatever it might be. No one plays a perfect game, I don't believe, unless nobody throws the ball at him or they run away from him all day long, and that's certainly not the case.

"All along everyone's noted his speed, all of his measurables, and he's a willing tackler," Caldwell continued. "He'll come up and he'll put you down and obviously the other things that he has innately. I just see him continuing to get better, and like I said, it's a marathon, not a sprint."