The Detroit Lions could be in the market for secondary help before November’s NFL trade deadline, but they plan to get a longer look at one of their developing young cornerbacks first.
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. made his season debut as the Lions’ No. 3 corner in last week’s win over the New York Jets and Lions coach Dan Campbell said Rakestraw played well enough to have a bigger role going forward.
“I think Rake’s earned the right to get out there a little bit more at outside corner here,” Campbell said Monday, Sept. 28. “So I think there's a chance he gets a few more reps than he got last week, certainly.”
A second-round pick out of Missouri in 2024, Rakestraw played sparingly as a rookie because of a strained hamstring and missed all of last season
with a shoulder injury.
He was inactive the first two games this year but played ahead of veteran Rock Ya-Sin in the Lions’ revamped cornerback rotation last week.
D.J. Reed and Roger McCreary started at cornerback against the Jets, and McCreary bumped inside in nickel packages when Rakestraw came on the field. Ya-Sin played just 13 defensive snaps, primarily in the Lions’ two-minute defense.
“The end of training camp, he was coming on pretty strong and then he had [a sprained] ankle and so we couldn’t use him Week 1, anyway,” Campbell said Tuesday, Sept. 29, in his weekly interview on 97.1 The Ticket (WXYT-FM). “He’s come back from that, been practicing. He’s done a nice job in practice, and so we just wanted to get him involved.”
The Lions rank last in the NFL in pass defense (299.3 ypg) through three weeks and have allowed a league-high 16 pass plays of 20-plus yards.
Their cornerback play has been an issue – Ya-Sin and Reed have been flagged for four penalties each, including three total pass interference calls against the Jets – and last week the Lions reportedly reached out to the Pittsburgh Steelers about a possible trade for Joey Porter Jr.
For now, a trade seems unlikely. The Steelers are 2-1 and coming off a win over the Cincinnati Bengals, Porter hasn’t played this season because of a contract dispute, and it likely would require high draft capital and a rich long-term deal to make any trade work.
Rakestraw played 20 coverage snaps against the Jets, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, and has five more games before the deadline to cement himself as a solution in the Lions secondary.
He allowed one catch on four targets for 6 yards with no yards after reception, deflected one pass on the sideline on an out to Garrett Wilson, and allowed just 1.3 yards of average separation on his four targets.
For comparison, Reed (3.1 yards), Ya-Sin (3.2 yards) and McCreary (3.3 yards) have all allowed more than 3 yards of separation per target for the season.
After using Rakestraw some in the slot early in his career and in camp, Campbell said the plan is to keep him on the outside for now.
And after saying in June he wouldn’t be held “hostage” by being tethered to any veterans this season and was willing to ride with young players through their learning curves because it would help the Lions down the road, Campbell acknowledged Monday that Rakestraw has the type of upside and sticky coverage ability that might be worth waiting for.
“He does fall into that,” Campbell said. “Even though this is Year 3, he hasn't played very much because of injury. And so he was able to really get a full training camp for the most part, got a lot of reps and really was getting better. He had an ankle right there at the end of training camp. But most young players, the more reps you get, the better you're going to get. And then if you're not, it's because it's between the ears. It's whatever, your psyche, your confidence gets shaken and you can't get out of it.
"But I think Rake's got a chance, man. He's got the ability and, man, he wants to do it right. He works at it. And I do, I think the more opportunities he gets, the better he'll get.”
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: Ennis Rakestraw 'earned the right' to prove he can solve Lions' CB woes
