Jordan Poyer has always played with a chip on his shoulder.

"This is my 9th year in the league and when you look at my production the last five years it's not a secret what I've been doing," Poyer said. "Though it does give me a little bit of fire, I just continue to put people on notice and I just want to keep doing that. That's my drive. My family and then just really shutting people up."

Poyer's 16 interceptions since joining the Bills in 2017 are tied for the 7th most by anyone in the NFL. It's more than anyone on the Bills over that time as well as the likes of fellow safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and Jamal Adams. Tyrann Mathieu and Harrison Smith also have 16 INTs.

All those names, including teammates Tre'Davious White and Micah Hyde, have made at least one Pro Bowl.

Poyer has not.

That could change this season, one the Bills safety himself believes has been his best, currently tied for 4th in the league with 3 INTs.

"I feel like I'm playing with a lot more sense of confidence," Poyer said. "I don't get nervous before games anymore... I just feel like I've been in so many games. This is year nine. You wake up for a one o'clock game and you've got the same routine and I feel like I've seen it and now I just go out there and trust my instincts to go play."

The other part of Poyer's rise has been getting a handle on his alcoholism, something he made public during the offseason.

"I feel like I've dealt with the hardest part of my life with being sober for almost 600 days now," Poyer said. "I feel like that part of my life was such a struggle to overcome, but now that I've overcome it, I just don't fear anything. It's weird. There's a power that's within me that I go out there and I just feel like I can play ball."

His safety sidekick and best friend Hyde can see the difference.

"Once you get your off the field situation handled, whether if you're married or you're not married, you understand your support group, your circle of friends and you go from there, it makes this football stuff so much more easier because you're not coming to work here every day thinking about what's going on outside of here," Hyde said. "You're coming to work here every day and you're understanding what you got to do as a man, as a football player to try and help this team win. I feel like when Po got to that point, obviously he's been playing well the last five years, but it really hit a peak going into this season kind of understanding himself a lot more and it's really shown."

While Poyer will always be aware of his addiction, his grip on it now has allowed it not to be so constantly present in the front of his mind.

"​I think I'm at a point where it's just the natural way," Poyer explained. "I wake up with positive energy all the time. Even if I feel down when I wake up I'm trying to pretend like, hey, let's have a great day. Just positive energy, positive mindset because during those times there was a lot of negative energy, negative mindset in my life. I feel like now that I've got that part out of my life things are just starting to roll. My relationships are better. What I'm doing on and off the field I feel a lot more confident in."

"I didn't know until he started speaking to me about the concern of it, but I'm glad," Hyde said. "And when he came out and told everybody and had that message on Instagram, it filled my heart because I have so much love for him. I have so much love for his family and to see him do that was such a big step as a man and I think everybody here loves him even more because of what he's able to do off the field."

As Jordan Poyer's also taking his biggest steps on the field as well.