The Detroit Lions have spent this offseason looking for answers at cornerback opposite D.J. Reed, and Rock Ya-Sin looks like the best one.
The veteran corner is set to be Detroit’s No. 2 corner entering the season after winning a position battle against Ennis Rakestraw Jr. and Roger McCreary.
General manager Brad Holmes may not agree with this, but Detroit’s secondary is not in a good situation. The team released corner Terrion Arnold following his offseason arrest, and safety tandem Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph are both on the PUP list with their return dates unclear.
So, the team was scrambling to put together a starting unit. The likely five-man group of Reed, Ya-Sin, Chuck Clark, Christian Izien and nickel McCreary isn’t exactly ideal.
But there’s hope that Ya-Sin may not be the worst option to begin the season at outside corner.
“We like the guys we have, we like what we’ve done, we feel good about what’s in the room right now,” Holmes said.
Rock Ya-Sin could be the answer the Lions have been looking for post-Terrion Arnold
Dan Pizzuta of For the Numbers shared a stat that suggests Ya-Sin was pretty sticky in coverage last season. He forced the third-highest percentage of tight-window throws of any corner in the NFL.
The four other players on the list, Derek Stingley, Quinyon Mitchell, Kamari Lassiter and Riq Woolen, are regarded among the NFL's best cornerbacks.
Ya-Sin’s sample size is smaller than the other four players who were starters for the whole season, but it’s not like he hardly played
Injuries to both Reed and Arnold pressed Ya-Sin into making six starts last year. He recorded a career-high nine passes defended and made 47 tackles.
He was scrappy in coverage and handled some big-time matchups well, most notably defending the Philadelphia Eagles’ star tandem of A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith quite admirably in a 16-9 loss last year.
Those kinds of assignments will likely be coming his way a lot more this season. He’ll have to keep up that hard-nosed style of play.
“I got to do a lot of cool things last year,” Ya-Sin said. “Match a lot of really good receivers and do things in my career that I hadn’t done up to that point. I thought that was really cool. Follow guys around. Stepping up when guys got hurt, and not taking a step back or missing a beat. Just roll with it. I was proud of that.”
Ya-Sin allowed 29 completions on 54 targets for a completion rate of 51.9%, 5.6 yards per target and a career-best passer rating of 74.8.
READ MORE: One down year from the Lions has NFL executives scrambling to declare them average
He was a high-end reserve for the Lions. Now, they need him to be a capable starter.
"Rock played really good football for us last year; he had a really good camp this year," Holmes said of Ya-Sin.
The Lions re-signed Ya-Sin to a one-year, $3.2 million contract this offseason. In his press conference after signing the deal, Ya-Sin said he wants to force more takeaways this season. He’s looking for his first interception since 2020.
“I want to take the ball away more this year. I really want to take the ball away,” he said. “I thought I left some on the field last year. Some interceptions, some forced fumbles. I want to do a better job of that this year.”
He’ll likely get plenty of chances to do so in 2026.
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