I have a lot of respect for your opinion about on the field football. Maybe more than anyone else on this board, but boy I think you are wrong here and it surprises me as I know you have been pushing to spend.
If Okudah stays healthy, I think it’s a no brainer.
Okudah ranking 30th +/- a few slots
90-120 corners that see significant snap shares to the point you want #120 to not suck.
$9m option, which is a minor raise to his 4th year salary. Would pay him as the…what…30th or so corner?
Im pretty ok with this given health and continued strong play.
Yr1 was a gimme due to the Shithead Tsunami that hadnt quite washed out of here yet. Yr2 Achilles.
So we have to judge on now.
Finding a guy better for lwss that $9m may not be possible or even realistic.
Okudah isn’t the Trevon Diggs 10 INT corner and he never has been. He’s going to lock up your number 1 target.
Peak Nnamdi was the comp I came up with. Better tackler to boot.
You mention catches with no context. He did this against Justin Jefferson (top 3 WR), McLaurin (pro bowl WR), and Devonta Smith (young stud had almost 200 yards and today, 7th is WR receiving yardage).
He is shutting down top tier NFL WRs.
Good thing we don’t have to decide now. I think he is playing really well. I do think he got the benefit of some double teams on Jefferson today in terms of extending him credit for the numbers, but regardless he is playing well. But I’d love to see him get through a full season injury free.
I think pitching it as “Okudah shut down Jefferson” is a little disingenuous due to all the double teams he was a part of. But there’s no doubt he’s looked good so far.
It’s a little concerning to me, however, that our coaching staff gave Amani a starting CB job but made Okudah battle Harris all camp for the other spot. So far it’s clear even to a random guy on the couch at home, Okudah is the Lions best corner by a fair margin. I do have a few questions about this staff’s roster abs depth chart usage at times.
That has to happen before you can give him a ton of money
If you put a gun to my head right this second I would say yes definitely give him one year of top 16 money. I believe in the guy. And like somebody said, you pay the guy for putting in the work. He’s come a long way. If he could just stay healthy.
I’m curious how many double teams you saw….
because I saw the Lions playing mostly single high safety look and Okudah followed Jefferson all over the field.
That was one of Jefferson’s worst games as a pro… and Jefe didn’t get much help at all. I saw 2 plays on the last scoring drive where the safety was over top of JJ… but not many other plays.
A lot
Interesting… I saw a lot of man-1 coverage with little help at all.
On one of Jefferson’s 3 catches… Elliott did make a tackle… but he had to read it and leave the area he was covering after the ball was thrown.
I didn’t see all-22 tape… care to throw some examples of those double coverages so I can check the out?
He held Jefferson to 2.3 yards per target. Safety help or not it was a dominant performance.
Okudah was intentionally kept under the radar, fellas.
…just so ya know.
If he stays healthy and continues to improve his play then that’s a different debate but based on the available info we have now. I would pass.
He’s not doing it alone and when the corner opposite of you is a huge liability teams tend to pick on the weak link.
I do think he’s improving and it maybe a different debate at seasons end but right now you just can’t.
I will tell you what I like about what he’s doing. He’s aggressive at the point of attack. He’s being physical and knocking receivers off their routes.
Okudah played Jefferson man up but we ran a bunch of 2 man with our safeties. Okudah had a safety over the top most of the game. That allowed him to be physical and jam Justin and physically get his hands on him. Something Okudah has excelled at.
I also noticed a bunch of plays (in obvious passing downs) where we would shade the nickel corner to help as well.
They are not putting Okudah on an island and asking him to do it alone. He has plenty of help.
Having safety help is normal… right???
I mean… unless ya got Prime or Revis Island… maybe some peak Gilmore… not too many defenses really leave the CB on an island.
Okudah was however…. manned up with Jefferson on a majority of snaps and didn’t have much help on shorter routes. He gave up 3 completions on him… and I think all 3 were crossing routes that aren’t too easy to cover in man. He gave up ZERO downfield completions against a top 5 WR in the NFL!!!
.
He certainly didn’t have much “help” on this play… when 10 guys lined near LOS and Okudah stoned JJ….
.
Slay won Defensive Player of Week award in week 2 for covering Jefferson… and allowed 6 catches for 48 yards… at Philly.
Jefe allowed 3 catches and 14 in Minny.
Why is this even a “thing”???
So now people are bitching about how Okudah shut these top WRs down as some how smoke and mirrors.No guys he has played light out for 3 games I swear Lions fans can never be happy.
That’s not true. He had a safety shadowing almost all game long.
Yes and no. Most teams put the safeties in a zone and they help when the WR was in the zone. That’s not what I’m talking about.
The Lions assigned a safety to shadow Jefferson. That’s double teaming and more often than not it was Elliot making the play not Okudah. I will show you examples of this when I have more time.
If you think I’m bitching then your not listening.
I do think he played well but that’s not the question. The question and theme of the thread is would you resign him for 11 mil based on what we know NOW.
My answer is NO. Why? Because he is a huge injury risk and he has been very much inconsistent. He’s looked good lately but we’re also giving him a lot of help. There were many plays he would have given up a big play if not for that help. Yes … he had help (most of the game) and he did what was asked of him and that was to physically jam Jefferson.
But he was able to do this because of the extra help he had. That’s all I’m saying but I’ll give examples of what I’m talking about.
I swear some of you just look at the stat sheets and not how those stats were achieved.
