The Cornerback Room Might Actually Be Fine
Here’s the thing about walking into training camp at Allen Park expecting disaster: sometimes you’re wrong. I went into week one thinking the cornerback situation was going to be the roster’s biggest liability. Seven days later, I’m not convinced that’s true anymore.
Look, nobody’s in pads yet. That matters. When they strap them on Monday, everything changes. But after watching this group work for a week, the cornerback situation doesn’t feel like the five-alarm fire it seemed like a month ago.
D.J. Reed looks like himself again. Two interceptions on Sunday. Before that, the week prior, he just looked like the player the Lions signed in the first place. The guy who was here last summer. The guy who was playing for Detroit the first few weeks of the season before he got hurt. He’s been that good.
The Guys Nobody Saw Coming
Rock Ya-Sin has looked good. Ennis Rakestraw has looked like a guy who is ready to play. I’ve been surprised. I think he could win the starting job. That’s not hype, that’s what my eyes are telling me.
Then there’s Nick Whiteside. Where the hell did this guy come from? I cannot think of another player on that field who wants a job and is earning it as hard as Whiteside is right now. Think about that for a second.
Do the Lions still need somebody? I do believe they still need somebody, but it’s not as hard of a need as it was a couple of weeks ago when they knew Terrion Arnold wasn’t going to be on the team and everything looked bleak.
The Arnold Situation Might Have Saved Them
This sounds bad, but maybe the Arnold situation was the best thing that could have happened to the Lions. It killed the dynamic where Detroit was going to come into training camp thinking, “Is this going to be the year he clicks and finds that potential Kelvin Shepard said on Sunday was untapped?” Or is it going to be another “maybe he’ll find it here” scenario that never materializes?
The Lions don’t have to worry about that anymore. Instead, it opens up a world where a bunch of guys realize they have a shot to be a starting cornerback in the NFL right now. All they need to do is play hard, and one of them will get it. Even if Ya-Sin wins the battle at the end of camp, that doesn’t mean Rakestraw and Whiteside are done. They’re still going to fight. It provides this fun competition, and when there’s competition, you feel like anything can happen.
What Holmes Should Do From Here
I’m looking at this now and thinking maybe the Lions should cool off on the idea of trading for somebody, because they’re in a good spot. The plan from here needs to be simple: let training camp play out, see who wins this battle, then grab somebody at the end of camp who gets cut from another team. It doesn’t have to be anybody huge or a recognizable name. Just a guy who can come in, contribute, and maybe even has an opportunity to start.
You get him involved in this competition, and it becomes a rising tide situation. Everybody’s boat is getting lifted because they all want a shot and they all see the opening to play cornerback for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. That’s a big deal.
Then you go to the trade deadline and see where you’re at. Maybe there’s a team looking to sell, and maybe you want or need a starting-caliber cornerback at that point. Maybe then you make a deal.
But right now, as I’m about to walk out onto the field and watch the Lions get into pads for the first time, I feel like this cornerback room is kind of settled. This might be the one time where Brad Holmes, Dan Campbell, and the Lions say “we like what we got,” and everybody rolls their eyes, but it actually works.
We’ll see. There’s still a lot of training camp left. This opinion can shift. Right now it feels real good. In a few weeks it might feel real bad. You never know. Let’s let it play out and see where it goes. This could be a really good story, or it could be a nightmare, but we’ll find out soon enough.
Is the cornerback room actually fixed or are we just falling for the training camp mirage again? Drop your take below.
