One of the focal points of the summer for the Detroit Lions has been the progress of third-year cornerback Jeff Okudah. After two disappointing seasons riddled with injuries, it’s a big season upcoming for the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft.
So far, so good, according to Lions head coach Dan Campbell. That’s the word from the coach after the first preseason game, a 27-23 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
“Listen, he did some good things. It was encouraging,” Campbell said Monday. “We came out of this game encouraged with Jeff. It was like, ‘OK, this is pretty good.’ Just to see him get up there and press a little bit, challenge, and then, man, he’s getting involved in some of these tackles, and so I would say we were encouraged.
That’s the best way to say it; it was encouraging.”
Okudah had three tackles (including the pictured one here) on the evening in 18 defensive snaps. He allowed one completion on his only target in coverage, per PFF’s game tracking. Okudah did have one very impressive rep in run defense that didn’t show on his stat sheet too, where he stacked the edge exactly as the Lions want their outside CBs to do
