For all his on-field flaws last season, and even after adding Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson this offseason, there's no denying the release of Cameron Sutton after a warrant was issued for his arrest leaves a void for the Detroit Lions at cornerback.
At the league meetings this week, head coach Dan Campbell pointed to the pursuit of a veteran addition at cornerback.
“I think certainly there are some guys we’re still looking at in free agency that can bring in some competition,” Campbell said. “And that may or may not be done before the draft, you know? I mean that brings up a little more urgency for another player, for sure, that can compete."
On Tuesday, via Kyle Meinke of MLive, general manager Brad Holmes had a direct contradiction of Campbell's sentiment about the cornerback position.
"It’s not a need,” Holmes said.
So much for the Lions' head coach and general manager being on the same page with everything, right?
Via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press (subscription required), Holmes talked about the return of Emmanuel Moseley and more directly about Sutton's departure impacting the draft plan.
"Emmanuel Moseley, there’s a reason why re re-signed him back,” Holmes said. “We felt really, really good about it, so we really like the competition that we currently have. We don’t really feel like the Cam Sutton situation really altered the landscape of how we’ll approach the draft.”
Moseley is in line to compete with Robertson for the starting spot opposite Davis. He is apparently on a good track after tearing his right ACL two snaps into his Lions' tenure last season, after working his way back from a torn left ACL the previous season with the 49ers.
But to count on Moseley for anything next season does not seem wise.
Holmes reinforced his previous sentiment that "you can never have enough cornerbacks", while also dismissing the position as any sort of urgent need that just has to be addressed.
Holmes is not going to say "we need to sign a cornerback/draft a cornerback early", lest he give away things he shouldn't. But it might be nice to hear him not basically dismiss the need to replace a cornerback he didn't expect to lose as recently as early last week.