Through his first four NFL games, Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold has struggled with penalties. A bullseye is surely on him to some degree anyway, from opponents and officials, but eight penalties (including five pass interferences) is a thing.
That being said, being flagged the way he has been means Arnold is close enough to receivers to be on the wrong side of what can be a narrow margin between what's penalty-worthy and what's not. Compared to what the Lions had at cornerback over the last couple seasons, they'll surely take having someone who's in position to actually impede a receiver.
The coaching staff, from head coach Dan Campbell to defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend, have not expressed great concern about Arnold's penalties. As a former NFL cornerback, Townsend understands pass interference penalties happen.
"That’s the thing in the league; if you’re a DB and you’ve played, you’ve had at least one PI called on you,” Townsend said in late September, via Justin Rogers of the Detroit Football Network. “That’s just the nature of the business. He just has to keep playing. That’s the one thing that we have to continue to do is not worry about the penalties and just go play."
Dan Campbell lands on appropriate word to describe what Terrion Arnold has to hone
"Just go play" is exactly what the Lions have let Arnold do, despite one suggestion he should be taken out of a starting lineup for a bit. He has played 94 percent of the Lions' defensive snaps. His Pro Football Grades are not great, but he has shown improvement in recent games despite another analyst given him an unfairly bad grade for his performance so far.
During his appearance on 97.1 The Ticket Wednesday morning, Campbell talked about Arnold's penalty issue and the work being put it in to fix it.
"It’s something we talked about. We had our big practice yesterday, our big first down, full-pad practice....That’s what those are to really work your craft and really hone in on your skill, get better at it," Campbell said. "That’s one of the areas, that’s why we do one-on-one’s. We’re playing man coverage, and how can you get into position to make a play, and make a play on the ball without drawing a flag."
"So much of it, too, is getting crafty with it," Campbell said. "There’s gonna be this give and take that goes down if you’re gonna compete with a receiver......Look, it’s a point of emphasis and he’s gonna be fine. He just keeps working through it and he knows what it is, but we need him to continue to compete and challenge on the perimeter.”
Arnold has the benefit of being coached by a defensive coordinator (Aaron Glenn) who was a good NFL cornerback, as well as Townsend, who played 13 seasons in the league. The persistent message from the coaches has been they don't want Arnold to lose his aggressiveness. As he gets more time to hone his craft, the rash of penalties that has been the headline so far will go away.