On Wednesday, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell had the first opportunity to address the team’s decision to cut Terrion Arnold after his arrest earlier in the offseason in connection with an armed robbery and kidnapping case.
Campbell didn’t offer much in terms of comment on the situation, but did say it was the tough-but-right move.
“So, I addressed the team last night over that. It stinks,” Campbell said. “You never want to let go of a player, especially somebody that you’ve been around for a while
here and you drafted and all that. And it’s unfortunate that we made the move we felt was best for us.”
Arnold is currently out of jail on $1 million bond, but is still facing eight felonies in relation to the alleged incident in February—three counts of kidnapping, three counts of armed robbery, and an additional count for conspiracy of each crime. Despite the legal issues, he representation recently said there are several teams who have expressed interest in signing Arnold and he expects the former Lions cornerback to sign with a team in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, the Lions appear ready to move on from the incident. Campbell expressed confidence in the players that remain at cornerback, including D.J. Reed, Rock Ya-Sin, Ennis Rakestraw, Roger McCreary, Khalil Dorsey and rookie Keith Abeny.
“We’re fired up,” Campbell said. “Look, it’s why we got Rock back. We went and got McCreary. We knew we’d get Rake back off injury. We drafted Abney. Certainly, Dorse is back. So, (Nick Whiteside) Ironsides is back. We feel pretty good in that room with the competition and those guys between veterans, young guys and ability.”
One option for Detroit to help add some reinforcements at outside corner is to move Abney and McCreary—who repped mostly at nickel in the spring—to the outside. Both players have extensive experience on the boundary. Campbell said they will cross train both players on the outside, but their main focus will still be the nickel position.
“They’ll take some of those outside (reps), but we still want to let them sink their teeth into some of this nickel,” Campbell said.
During Wednesday’s opening training camp practice, Reed operated in one of the starting cornerback roles with Rakestraw and Ya-Sin splitting time with the first-team defense at the other outside cornerback position.
