DaRon Bland ranks in the all-time elite tier for defensive backs — a career that places Bland in the top 10% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Bland a career score of 73, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 3 boards

CBDAL#26ACT

DaRon Bland

1× Pro Bowl1× All-ProTop 6% all-time defensive backsElite Playmaker👑 #1 Defensive Back · 2023 ⭐ Shooting Star · 2023

Height

Career Value · VORP

98 career value over replacement — #1177 all-time of 4,695. 24.5/season above a replacement-level CB.

Career Profile

Led league 1×2 top-10

Draft OutcomeSteal ↑

Pick #167 (Rd 5) · DAL · 2022 · +49.2 vs expected KV-H

73actual

23.8 expected · Δ+49.2

💔+39.2 stolen VORP·1.6 szns lost

Fan Rating

Rate DaRon Bland — All-Time

Tap a star to rate

Explore More

Similar Players

Chad Scott

90% match

Minkah Fitzpatrick

88% match

Jessie Bates

87% match

Anthony Harris

85% match

Charles Tillman

85% match

Compare DaRon Bland vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 19% of the all-time Interceptions leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

19% of the all-time Interceptions leader19

0 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader0

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 87%.

Encyclopedia Coverage6/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Offensive, defensive, and special-teams snap counts with team-share percentages. Essential for OL and situational players. Source: nflverse snap_counts.

Defensive StatsMaterial defensive production only: playmaking stats, 10+ tackles, or 50+ defensive snaps. Source: nflverse player_stats and snap_counts.

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary Layers

Where this data comes from

Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Per-Snap Impact

Defensive Backs · proprietary · 2012+

Above average

SIS

Disruption / 100 snaps:2.019See leaderboard →

Disruption/1002.019Snap share86.1%Def snaps3,071ReliableCV 0.42

Production per snap — the box score normalized by opportunity. SIS is z-scored within defensive backs, shrinkage-regularized so small samples don't spike, over the NFL snap-count era (2012+).

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average defensive backs aging curve. Group peak age: 21. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).

Understanding These Stats

Defense

Tkl / Solo / Ast — Combined tackles (Solo + ½ Assist). Solo = unassisted. Ast = helped by a teammate.

TFL — Tackles for loss — stops made behind the line of scrimmage (run stuffs + QB contain).

QBHits — QB hits — any legal contact on the quarterback, including but beyond sacks (hurries that land).

Sk — Sacks — tackled the QB behind the line for a loss. Half-sacks shared between defenders.

Dis — Disruption plays = sacks + QB hits + TFL. The composite pass-rush / run-stop impact stat for one season. Elite pass rushers post 30+ disruption plays per season.

Int — Interceptions caught by this defender.

PD — Passes defended — deflections and breakups.

FF / FR — Forced fumbles (stripped or jarred loose). Fumble Recoveries.

TD — Defensive touchdowns — picks, fumble returns, safeties returned.

Sfty — Safeties — tackled the ball carrier in their own end zone.

Snap Counts (2012–present)

Postseason Career

3 playoff games

Defense

Tkl20Solo12Ast8PD1

College Stats

Fresno StateCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Fresno State), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Bryan AngerP5y Dak PrescottQB5y Malik HookerFS5y Terence SteeleOT5y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

DaRon inherited the Dallas Cowboys DB room from Trevon Diggs (2020–2025), and holds it as the most recent the corpus records.

Mel Renfro 1964–1977Dennis Thurman 1978–1985Everson Walls 1981–1989Dextor Clinkscale 1982–1985Bill Bates 1983–1997Darren Woodson 1992–2003

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

2026final season
Last recorded season with DAL
2022draft
Drafted by DAL — Round 5, Pick 167

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'2" / 202 lb

Frame

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 4-season peers. See all →

peak 82

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

A+2022

A+2023

D2024

C+2025

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 5 seasons.

68%

Era Translator

INT translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual INT	INT/G	→ 2025 INT	→ 2025 /G
2022	5	0.4	6+1	0.4
2023	9	0.5	8-1	0.5
2024	0	0	0	0
2025	1	0.1	1	0.1

Data: nflverse:players, nflverse:player_stats_def, nflverse:snap_counts, nflverse:draft_picks · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 10/15/2026

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.