Situations out of their control have impacted the Detroit Lions' secondary. Injuries will sideline safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch for at least the first four games of the season, and an off-field situation led to the release of cornerback Terrion Arnold in late-June.
In his comments after initial roster cuts, general manager Brad Holmes defended how the Arnold situation was handled. It's clear he and head coach Dan Campbell were not told the full story by Arnold. When more troubling details finally came to light, and Arnold was arrested, they wasted no time to move on.
Holmes also expressed confidence in the rest of the cornerback room, saying multiple times he's happy with who is in place as he was pressed about the idea more should've been done to add to that depth chart.
It was nice to see Holmes pressed a little bit on that topic, even if he maintained a "how dare you question me?" vibe.
It's also safe to say that confident sentiment about the cornerback depth chart is not shared by a lot of other people. The Lions are one key injury away from the situation looking pretty ugly, which is actually nothing new. Kindle Vildor started the NFC Championship game a couple years ago against the San Francisco 49ers, after all.
Dan Campbell backs up Brad Holmes' confidence in Lions' secondary
Campbell resumed his weekly in-season appearance on 97.1 The Ticket Wednesday. Co-host Jim Costa brought up the perception of the secondary being a soft spot going into the season without Joseph and Branch, and with the changes at cornerback.
"This is the best position we've been in in the secondary, without those two guys (Joseph and Branch) in a long time", Campbell said. "(Avonte) Maddox and Chuck (Clark) are very reliable, dependable, smart, football players, highly competitive. Rock (Ya-Sin) and (D.J. Reed), man, are highly competitive. Get the job done."
"They're gonna compete, they're gonna battle, nothing's too big for 'em. We got (Roger) McCreary, we got (Keith) Abney, we got Rake (Ennis Rakestraw). Listen, I like where we're at."
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Campbell then went on a tangent about what players do or don't do well and how it fits into the team as a whole and roles that need to be filled. It was a rare word salad to go away from an answer to the question, almost like he's trying to talk himself into the secondary not being a question mark.
Time will tell if the secondary can back up Holmes and Campbell's confidence, starting with what promises to be a stiff test from an underrated New Orleans Saints' offense on Sunday.
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