Get ready for a bloodbath as Lions make historic cornerback investment

ALLEN PARK — Ennis Rakestraw flew to Detroit for a pre-draft visit 17 days ago. He knew the Lions were looking for a hard-hitting cornerback, and figured he’d be a good culture fit. So did everyone else, and Rakestraw became a trendy pick for the Lions at No. 29.

Then he arrived in Detroit, and got into a car provided by the team. And there was Alabama All-American Terrion Arnold, too.

They were the top two cornerbacks in the nation’s best conference. Turns out, they were the top two cornerbacks on the Lions’ draft board, too. Both were in town on the same day for pre-draft visits. Now the Lions have opened the draft by landing both star cornerbacks, blistering their top remaining need by trading up for Arnold in Round 1 and then taking Rakestraw in Round 2.

“We didn’t go into it saying that we were going to get two corners in the first two rounds,” general manager Brad Holmes said a few minutes after making the pick. “We really didn’t. It was just (Rakestraw) was the highest-graded guy for us at the time. And you know how we roll. We went ahead and got him. Those were also our top-two ranked corners.”

The Lions might not have intended to take back-to-back cornerbacks, but it’s difficult to imagine this draft — hosted in their streets, with record crowds screaming with their every move — breaking any better than this.

They’ve been saddled with a bottom-five pass defense for the last half-decade. Holmes tried to attack the weakness last year, signing cornerbacks C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley in free agency, plus spending a second-round pick on Brian Branch in the draft. But while Branch turned out to be a stud in the slot, Gardner-Johnson wound up missing most of the season, Moseley did too and Sutton was a flop in the starting lineup.

Detroit finished 27th against the pass overall and allowed the second-most passing yards per game in the postseason, before losing Gardner-Johnson to the Eagles in free agency and then cutting Sutton due to domestic violence allegations in Florida.

The Lions still have one of the best rosters in the NFL, but had graver issues at cornerback than anywhere else. Holmes invested heavily again in free agency, trading for Carlton Davis and then signing Amik Robertson to a two-year deal. Then whether he intended to or not, he made a historic investment in the draft too, spending his first two picks on cornerbacks, a first in franchise history.

Detroit had selected just two cornerbacks in the first two rounds over the last decade combined, both of whom were busts. With Arnold and Rakestraw now joining Davis and Robertson, plus re-signing Kindle Vildor and Emmanuel Moseley, not to mention the return of Branch in the slot, there are a whole lot of options heading into a season where Detroit will be Super Bowl favorites.

The Lions figure to have their deepest cornerback rotation in, well, when was the last time they had this many viable options at that position? And there’s no telling what will unfold once the competition begins in training camp.

“Yeah, it’s a bloodbath in there now,” Holmes said. “It is, and that’s what makes everything better. It makes the room better, it makes the defense better, it makes the team better. Competition just brings the best out of everybody.”

The Lions haven’t added just talent at the position, but hardcore culture fits too. Arnold’s reputation for dawgery speaks for itself, and Rakestraw is cut from that same cloth.

“I call myself the tone-setter,” Rakestraw said. “My defense used to call me the firecracker of the team. I’m a corner, but I’ll come up and set that edge. I’ll hit you like a linebacker, and I just let my presence be felt every play that I’m out there.”

Does this guy sound like a Dan Campbell fit or what?

Like so many other pieces in this rebuild, Rakestraw comes from humble beginnings too. He once was a 138-pound cornerback who was locking up big-time receivers during his days at the highest levels of Texas high school football. He was invited to the Under Armour national camp, and made the four-hour drive from the University of Kansas.Then he showed up, and was turned away at the door because of his size.

“I was at the gate, coach was supposed to let me in,” Rakestraw said. “But then he came back and said some of the guys said I don’t look like a Power Five athlete because I was so small. I called my mom, my mom picked me up. I cried in the car, and I put an oath to myself that for the rest of this year, every four or five-star I face is going to feel me, and I’m going to show them I’m that type of guy. And I did that, and got to this point.”

Rakestraw wound up committing to Missouri, and while he dealt with injuries and isn’t the same kind of top-end athlete as Arnold, he also asserted himself as an enforcer in the SEC. He allowed just 18 catches for 197 yards this past season, and in a matchup against the best offense he faced all year, LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels — who went second overall in the draft — targeted Rakestraw just once all afternoon. That ball fell to the ground, and Daniels never tried Rakestraw again.

Holmes was impressed with the production.

He was impressed with the wiring, too.

“You feel the confidence,” Holmes said. “Me and Dan (Campbell) sitting there and talking to him, I just kind of felt ‘dawg’ exuding out of him, just a lot more quiet, just kind of to the point and to the business, not as loud and vocal and vivid personality like Terrion was.

“But Terrion and Ennis, both of them you really felt like, ‘OK, these guys fit who we’re about. These guys fit our culture.’ But it was something about Ennis, just the competitiveness, the drive, how he talked about his story, how he talked about his process, how he talks about just the details of ever since he came out of high school out in Texas and just the whole recruiting process and how when he got to Missouri, his whole thing about these receivers that he’s been up against in the past going against (Steelers WR George) Pickens. All these things that I was just like, man, this guy’s about one of the more competitive kids. So it’s not only that I felt a competitive dawg out of him, but he was speaking it too, and his tape shows the same thing.”

The Lions hold four picks on Day 3 of the draft, including two in the fifth round, plus single selections in the sixth and seventh. They could go any direction with those picks, including peppering some depth pieces at unaddressed areas like edge rusher and receiver.

But for a team that hasn’t defended the pass well in a half-decade — and hasn’t had a premium cornerback since Darius Slay was run out of town by the previous regime — there is real hope at last that one of the league’s best teams has finally repaired its biggest weakness.