Arnold played the most but if he were a fifth round pick would we say he’s deserving? He did have a fairly rough season, especially early on. Unfortunately, most of the other guys didn’t play much. Wingo and Mahogany might be candidates. Vaki? Hopefully these guys develop for next year.
honestly, arnold. rookie CB thrown right at the #1 or #2 wrs and always always stuck to them. I’m fine with grabby because they can’t call it all the time and after he got some help from the refs on telling him what to do, he cleaned it up huge. big steps for a rookie corner.
Have to say Jake Bates.
Good call. Might be him.
Bates and Arnold.
Arnold has come into one of the, if not the most difficult positions to translate from college to pros and gotten better every week!
I also think Mohagony is going to be a good starter for us. He isn’t in convo for this topic but I expect him to be a good starter maybe as soon as next year.
Maybe as soon as 2 weeks
I can’t imagine voting for anyone other than Arnold here. Frankly, he’s the only rookie that contributed in any kind of significant way this season.
Rookie CB’s are usually not very good imo, and the Lions rookie CB’s were no exception this year. Arnold improved quite a bit from the start to the end of the season though. He logged significant playing time and did make a lot of great plays while working through the anticipated rookie gaffes.
Zooming out, this was the easiest Lions rookie of the year vote to date under Holmes. I’m not sure if this is because this was Holmes’ “worst” draft class, or if it’s because the team has become so talented that it’s just simply more difficult for rookies to contribute?
I’m thinking maybe a bit of both, but I can’t say I had high expectations from this class to begin with. 2 rookie CB’s + 2 projects + 2 late picks usually doesn’t amount to what we saw in Holmes’ previous classes.
So yeah - It’s Arnold. I thought he had a GREAT season for a rookie CB. Expecting to see a solid jump from him next year. Very glad he appears to have avoided a significant injury last night.
I agree. The guy has been solid and plays a big role.
Jake Bates! Hello!
after so much talent from our last 3-4 drafts was there just not enough room on the field for this years rookies? Or is it Brads worst class of the 5?
TA is solid!!! One of the stickiest CBs in the league. Yea he got some PI’s but most were in the first half of the season. Hope he’s good to go in 2 weeks!!!
1:) in the prior drafts we had much more capital.
1:) Wingo would have seen a crazy opportunity had he stayed healthy. Ennis as well. And Mahogany got a late start. So injuries were substantial in the rookie class.
3: Vaki (aside from teams) and Manu still needed development.
I really think Terrion will be a premier CB. He is very rarely caught getting beat, he just has to know how to use his hands better.
Unfortunately Rakestraw is a complete unknown right now due to injuries and just too many bodies ahead of him early in the season before the injuries hit. I do think he may be a nice surprise in 2025.
Vaki and Manu were both expected to contribute very little on offense. Vaki has been an excellent special teamer and I love his long term upside at RB. Hopefully we can get Manu to where we are comfortable enough with him to use him as a backup next season, that way he isn’t wasting a roster spot. I don’t expect him to be ready to compete to start until 2026, he is extremely raw like Bro-Mart.
Mahogany has the look and feel of a plug and play starter at G for 10+ years. I loved the pick and I loved how he looked in his first start. It was impressive considering how much time he had missed.
I wasn’t quite as high on Wingo as some others around here were, but I do think he was a really good value in the 6th and will prove to be a reliable backup 3T who can play 300-400 snaps and get you 3-5 sacks.
Obviously you can consider Jake Bates a rookie and he was an absolute slam dunk. Kicker had been my biggest Brad Holmes pet peeve and now we look to have one of the best in the league.
Bates runs away with it. I mean he did set the lions single season scoring record
Great summary ^
Hopefully Rakestraw is a dawg because Renardo Green is having a damn good rookie year at CB
And the consensus 3 favorites
Coop Dejean
Mikey Sainristil
Jerzahny Newton
All stud 2nd rounders that if we traded up for the place woulda wernt ballistic
It’s Jake Bates. I withdraw my original vote and shame on @Lionpile for not having his shit together for the poll.
Gotta be Bates, hands down. The kid really responds to pressure situations. Good job, Jake!
