Detroit Lions: Justin Coleman playing like a Pro Bowl candidate

While Darius Slay has made the Pro Bowl a few times, one of his Detroit Lions teammates and fellow cornerbacks just may be taking his spot in Hawaii.

Following Sunday’s loss to the Vikings, the Lions now sit at 2-3-1 through seven weeks this season, posting their first losing record so far this season.

Part of the reason why the Lions lost the game were cause three key defensive starters for extended periods of time in the game.

Defensive tackle Damon Harrison (groin) and cornerback Darius Slay (hamstring) both left the game due to injury, and middle linebacker Jarrad Davis re-aggravated his right ankle injury.

With these three players out, it makes sense why the Lions defense gave up 42 points to their NFC North foe. Kirk Cousins had enough time in the pocket to throw wherever he wanted, with the most deadly being a 66-yard catch from wide receiver Stefon Diggs late in the fourth to seal the Minnesota win.

While that big play was given up partially because of cornerback Justin Coleman, the coverage man has been one of the best corners in football this season, and has been the main reason why Detroit’s secondary has remain solid even in Slay’s absence.

A free agent acquisition out of Seattle, Coleman was seen as one of the most underrated corners coming into the season, based on some advanced statistics from Pro Football Focus.

Coming into the season, Coleman was projected to be the starting slot corner for the team, but has done most of his work this on the outside, covering many talented wide receivers and giving up very few big plays.

His stats appear very impressive for those just looking at the box score, as through four games, he has put up 21 total tackles while defending nine passes, forcing and recovering a fumble, and picking off Aaron Rodgers last week.

Coleman’s impact on the field goes beyond the box score, as his presence on the field draws defenses away from him. In addition to that, Coleman helps communicate with the young secondary on where to go in man coverage schemes.

Pro Football Focus also loves Coleman from an advanced statistics standpoint, as he ranked in the top 5 among all qualifying corners through the first six weeks. For these amazing stats, Lionswire has awarded him the defensive MVP and Most Pleasant Surprise on the team through the first quarter of the season.

What Lions fans should be even more excited about is that Coleman is pushing the young corners around him to be better in practice competitions that feature not only bragging rights, but also Best Buy gift cards.

Even though the scale for how the points for this in-house competition are calculated, with Slay and Coleman’s name at the top of the leaderboard, Slay couldn’t help but compliment his teammate.

"“He’s playing (bleeping) awesome,” Slay said to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “He ain’t playing well, that’s an understatement. He’s playing (bleeping) awesome. Fam is doing what he’s supposed to be doing out here, that’s why he’s one of the best in that slot position and he’s going to continue to keep balling like that, too.”"

Being able to excel at both the slot spot and the traditional outside corner position has allowed the Lions secondary to be flexible with their lineups, thanks to his versatility and dominance.

If Coleman can keep up this efficient rate of pass coverage success, he may not only help the Lions to few wins because of the defense this season, but also might get an invitation to Hawaii this January for the Pro Bowl.