Jerry Jacobs playing more will only help the Detroit Lions secondary

Jerry Jacobs has a couple games under his belt now, so he should be prominently re-inserted into the Detroit Lions secondary.

The Detroit Lions secondary had no answers for Dolphins wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle last Sunday. They aren’t the first, and won’t be the last, secondary to have issues with those guys. But there seemed to be a gap in what the game plan was and the implementation, and defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant paid the price as the easy scapegoat when he was fired on Monday morning.

Jerry Jacobs was an undrafted rookie find for the Lions last year, as he started nine games and played well. But his rookie season was ended early by a torn ACL in Week 14 against the Denver Broncos. He recently came off the PUP list, and has played in the last two games,

Jacobs has mostly played special teams has he literally gets his legs under him. He has played a total of 16 special teams snaps, and one defensive snap over the last two weeks (zero defensive snaps against the Dolphins in Week 8). It makes sense to ease him into action, so as to avoid setbacks or a re-injury.

But after last Sunday’s game, Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about playing Jacobs more.

"Oh yeah, we’re going to be looking at Jerry,” Campbell said after the game Sunday. “We’ll be looking at everybody.”We want to make sure Jerry is ready to go and then let him compete and see where he is,” Campbell said. “We still feel like last week was a step in getting him – continuing to get his confidence back, getting his legs under him, and that started with (special) teams and he got a little bit more in this department.Once we feel like, OK, he’s right, he can take the load, and he competitively is better than one of the other guys, then he’s going to get his chance.”"

If he’s physically up to it, Jerry Jacobs can only help the Lions secondary

After being benched in Week 5, Amani Oruwariye has played every defensive snap for the Lions over the last two games. He has done nothing, all season, to be worthy of such a big role. He is playing that much by default, and that default time has to be over.

AJ Parker, Mike Hughes and Will Harris have mostly not been good enough in the nickel corner role.

If Jacobs can even take 10-15 defensive snaps, starting this week against the Packers, he should be allowed to do so. Per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, after last Sunday’s game he sounded ready for a lot more defensive action.

"Hell yeah, we on the way,” “We on the way for sure. Should be next week. Time to turn up. I’m ready.”"

Jacobs has not played in the slot since his junior season at Arkansas State, but he got some practice reps there last week.

Jacobs could be going from zero defensive snaps in Week 8 to practically every snap in Week 9. However much he plays, he will only help a Lions’ secondary that needs all it can get.