In 2003 he was the Pittsburgh Tribune Review Player of the Year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette AA Player of the Year and was named to the Post-Gazette “Fab 22” team as well
Led Aliquippa to the 2003 PIAA Class AA Football Championship, scoring 5 TD’s in the title game and led Quips basketball team in scoring, winning 2 WPIAL titles with a 25.2 PPG scoring average his senior year
At Pitt was named to the Freshman All American team in 2004, was All-East in 2005 and 2006 and his 73-yard punt return vs. WVU in 2006 was voted ESPN College Football Play of the Year
In 2006 he was also a finalist for both the Jim Thorpe Award and the Bronco Nagurski Trophy
In the 2007 NFL Draft, the Jets traded up from the 25th to the 14th spot to select Darrelle
He played in 145 NFL games in 11 seasons, starting 142 of them, had 497 tackles of which 411 were solo, had 139 deflected passes and 29 interceptions, 3 returned for TD’s with the longest 100 yards
He was selected to play in 7 Pro Bowls, was named first team All-Pro 4 times and was ranked #24 in the 2016 NFL Network Top 100 Players list
He was a member of the 2016 New England Patriots Super Bowl XLIV championship team
With the Pats in 2015, combining both the AFC Championship game vs. Denver and Super Bowl XLIV vs. Seattle, he allowed only one pass reception in both game