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After using their first-round pick in the NFL Draft to add Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold on Thursday night, the Detroit Lions spent a second-round selection on Missouri cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. on Friday night.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes said the team didn’t enter the draft intending to open corner-corner, but took its highest-rated remaining player with both picks, further adding to Detroit’s offseason remake at cornerback.
“It’s a bloodbath in there now,” Holmes said of the Lions’ cornerbacks room on Friday night. “It is, and that’s what makes everything better. It makes the room better, makes the defense better, makes the team better. Competition just brings the best out of everybody.”
Detroit did not re-sign its top two corners from last season – Cameron Sutton and Jerry Jacobs. In March, the Lions traded for former Auburn standout Carlton Davis, a six-year starter at cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and signed cornerback Amik Robertson as a free agent after he started 12 games for the Las Vegas Raiders last season.
Holdovers Kindle Vildor and Khalil Dorsey started two games apiece last season, and former Alabama standout Brian Branch is back for a second season after excelling in multiple roles, including slot corner, for Detroit as a rookie.
“I’m just ready to get to work,” Arnold said. “I feel like this is the time to make the next step. I established myself in college. The Lions traded up to get me, so now it’s time to establish myself in the National Football League.”
Detroit drafted Rakestraw at No. 61. The Lions got Arnold with the 24th pick after sending the 29th and 73rd selections to the Dallas Cowboys to move up five spots in the first round and receive a 2025 seventh-round pick.
“People could have kind of saw, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect Terrion Arnold to go this low. I expected him to go higher,’” Arnold said about the early rush on offensive players that pushed highly regarded defensive prospects lower in the draft. “But, honestly, I’m right where I’m supposed to be. That’s why when I grabbed the mic, I said, ‘I’m home.’ And I feel like everything happens for a reason. I just call this moment for such a time as this.”
The Lions think they got an ascending – or as Holmes termed it “on the come” – player in Arnold.
“The thing about Terrion, what’s great about him, some of these guys, they are what they are or you might say the ceiling might not be as high,” Holmes said. “But the thing about him is you go back to his ‘22 film, you go back to earlier this season and you saw an incremental improvement every single game. … We feel really good about his floor, but we feel even better about his ceiling. …
“The mindset checked. That box was checked. Obviously, the player and the skill set checked. As you guys know, it’s more than just the skill set for us. That’s the easy part. That’s the easy part to see if someone is athletic, to see if someone can run fast, change directions. You can do that Day 1. It’s like: How’s a guy wired? And we felt good about that.”
Arnold said he earned his improvement.
“I just worked, made the sacrifices,” Arnold said. “I had friends that were going out to seek pleasure. I had opportunities to go out there and do that, but I had a goal in front of me. I envisioned it, I manifested it, and I went out there and got it. Same thing with being here. Like I said, everything is for such a time as this. With Detroit, the next jump is winning the Super Bowl. I feel like the reason why they brought me in here is to help them take that next step.”
Arnold became the Lions’ fourth selection from Alabama in three drafts. Detroit picked wide receiver Jameson Williams in the first round in 2022 and running back Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round and Branch in the second round in 2023.
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“On Wednesday, before draft night, Brian Branch was at my dinner, so we got a chance to catch up, jell,” Arnold said. “And I’ve been talking to him consistently throughout the season – talking about how proud I was of him. Funny story, when he caught his first pick, because he didn’t really have any opportunities like that at Alabama, he had a pick-six, so I congratulated him on that. And to see him grow, not only into a better player but a better man, it’s been amazing to see.
“And then right after I got drafted, Jamo called me, and he was like, ‘We going up tonight,’ so just looking forward to being around him. He’s a fun, energetic guy, and we feed off of stuff like that, so I’m really stoked about going against him in one-on-ones and just molding him into a better player and him molding me into a better player. And then Jahmyr, it just speaks for itself. He’s a quiet guy, but most people don’t know Jahmyr. He’s a great dude on the inside and an even better player.”
Arnold said he looks forward to picking up where he left off with Branch at Alabama, when they would be the last players on the field with a JUGS machine. He called the re-pairing “the second coming” of Arnold and Ga’Quincy “Kool-Aid” McKinstry, the Alabama cornerback who was picked in the second round by the New Orleans Saints on Friday night.
“Just as far as him pushing me, he’s a funny guy,” Arnold said of Branch, “so if I go out there and have a pass caught on me, he’ll be like, ‘T, come on, man.’ I can already imagine the jokes, like, ‘They traded up for this?’ That’s him. That’s like him and I are. But it’s going to always be like that. I just look forward to lining up, getting the call from him, smiling at him and catching a pick, saying, ‘I told you so.’”
Arnold said he has high aspirations for his career and the Lions.
“That chip on that shoulder comes from that same kid that got benched versus Tennessee,” Arnold said. “It’s the same thing. It’s been driving me. I call it my Michael Jordan moment, and it’s going to drive me to that gold jacket.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
