Detroit Lions: Fallout of Jeff Okudah’s devastating injury
By Evan Bachman
It was announced that Detroit Lions second-year corner Jeff Okudah ruptured his Achilles and will be out for the year.
The Detroit Lions kicked off their season with a 41-33 loss against the 49ers and unfortunately, the news didn’t get any better on Monday morning as it was reported that second-year corner Jeff Okudah ruptured his Achilles and will be out for the year.
Coming into the NFL, Okudah was thought of as one of the best cornerback prospects in recent memory, arguably the very best as he was selected by the Detroit Lions with the third overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft. He was a former five-star recruit out of Texas in the 2017 class and when you turn on the tape you can see why.
He has all the prototypical physical traits to play corner as he’s got outstanding size and length to go along with elite change of direction/movement skills and leaping ability. He also consistently proved himself at Ohio State as he was lockdown in coverage his last two seasons and was a unanimous All-American in his junior season in 2019.
Okudah’s rookie season was pretty underwhelming as he really struggled in coverage and played in nine games before missing the rest of the season with a groin injury. Given that corners typically have some trouble adjusting to the NFL, there was hope that he would have a much better sophomore campaign, but the injury derails that.
For the Detroit Lions, they’ll have to go the rest of the season without their starting corner, on a roster that is already lacking talent. Ifeatu Melifonwu who was a third-round pick in last year’s draft out of Syracuse will likely step into a starting role now in Okudah’s absence.
For Okudah, this is obviously a pretty devastating blow to miss nearly his entire second year, especially with an Achilles injury, which is known for having long recovery times.
With that being said, however, I still wouldn’t write him off yet, he has as much natural talent as any corner in the league and he will have a lot of motivation to come back and prove himself.