The Detroit Lions cut third-year cornerback Terrion Arnold after he was arrested on eight felony counts of kidnapping and armed robbery this summer, but Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard said losing Arnold was not the blow some have made it out to be to his defense.
“I’m not going to say it was a setback, so to say, because to me, honestly, that’s disrespectful to the guys that’s still in this locker room,” Sheppard said Sunday, Aug. 2, in Allen Park. “What I’ll say is Terrion Arnold had No. 1 cornerback potential, but it was still untapped, you know what I mean? And I’ll kind of leave that at that.”
Arnold, the Lions’ first-round pick in 2024, made seven starts before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery last December, and the team has spent the first four days of training camp auditioning his replacements.
Rock Ya-Sin and Ennis Rakestraw Jr. have split No. 2 cornerback reps opposite D.J. Reed with the first-team defense, while Nick Whiteside, Roger McCreary and Keith Abney II have worked mostly at backups.
Rakestraw, McCreary and Christian Izien are candidates to start at the slot cornerback position, and the Lions also are juggling personnel at safety.
Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox have taken first-team safety reps this summer with Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch on the physically unable to perform list. Two of Clark, Maddox and Izien are expected to start the opener Sept. 13 against the New Orleans Saints at safety.
Despite all the unknown, Sheppard said he likes the makeup of a secondary that most outside observers believe is the Lions’ biggest weakness.
“We’ve brought in a good group we feel of veteran players who’ve done it before,” Sheppard said. “That’s the thing that I think is the biggest difference this year is that, say we go into this season, we go into this thing with the room as it sits right now. Chuck Clark, Avonte Maddox, even Thomas Harper, these guys have time on task in the NFL with NFL snaps. They’ve seen these formations. They’ve done it. And, then they could also – there’s a lot of young guys in the room that can lean on these guys. So, I just love the way the room’s set up right now, the way it’s structured.”
Both Joseph (11 games) and Branch (five) missed significant time because of injuries last season and the Lions relied on mostly inexperienced players in their absence.
Harper, who the Lions claimed off waivers from the Las Vegas Raiders at the end of camp, started nine games at safety after playing more snaps on special teams than defense in 2024 as a rookie. Erick Hallett made two starts in the first game action of his career. And Daniel Thomas, a kick-game specialist in his first five seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, started two late-season games in the secondary.
Maddox (44 career starts) and Clark (80), by contrast, have more career starts than every other safety on the Lions’ roster – Joseph, Branch, Izien, Loren Strickland, Dan Jackson and Aamaris Brown – combined (118).
Sheppard said he has structured the defense in a way that will make it easier to plug-and-play potential replacements in season. And he said having experienced players such as Maddox and Clark should help the defense in another area of emphasis this year – its ability to better disguise coverages.
“The quarterbacks in this league is too good now, so it’s all about lying to them,” Sheppard said. “You got to be liars on defense. You got to lie to that guy with the green dot on offense. Pre-snap, he has to see something and then post-snap, that picture has to change or else you’re sitting duck. And these guys have done these things. They understand the why behind it. …. So, the neck up, I think we’ve taken a step as far as the DB room and the secondary room is concerned.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions DC: ‘Disrespectful’ to call Terrion Arnold’s loss a setback for secondary
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
