he feels like Detroit’s secondary is “the best secondary in the NFL.”
“We’ve been proving it,” Arnold said. “All you gotta do is cut on the tape from last year and cut on the tape this year.”
Well, he’s not wrong.
Detroit’s passing game last year was dismal and arguably cost the Lions a chance at the Super Bowl. This year? They haven’t allowed multiple passing touchdowns in the same game and rank first in Expected Points Added (EPA) per pass (-0.24) while ranking second in interceptions (14).
The last three games have been some of Arnold’s best. Over that span, he’s allowed eight catches on 14 targets for 78 yards. He said the thing he’s most proud of has been his ability to limit explosive plays — an area that killed the Lions in 2023.
Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said Arnold is “improving every week.”
Mainly, that includes penalties. Coming from the college game — where officials are far more lenient on hand-fighting and other contact during pass plays — Arnold was flagged eight times through his first four games. In his last six games, however, he only has one penalty.
“The one thing that we want to make sure that he continues to improve on in practice was his ability to not grab and hold and things like that,” Glenn said. “Listen, he’s a very aggressive player and we play aggressively at the corner spot, and we knew some of those things were going to take a while for it to come out, and he’s doing a good job.”
Neither Arnold nor fellow Lions cornerback Carlton Davis can be found atop the Pro Football Focus rankings for cornerbacks, but it seems those grades ignore some pretty heavy context. The Lions play man coverage more than any team in the league (41.5% of coverage snaps).
Put another way: No team asks more of their cornerbacks than the Lions.
I think Arnold is right…we do have the best secondary in the league. Best oline too. Best running back room as well. The best coaching / GM combo could be argued. When could we ever say that about the Lions in the past?
Interesting that the ref’s seem to be giving him advice:
“The ref will be like, ‘Hey, we watched the tape on you. You were very, very sticky in coverage, we see it, we broke it down. Just at the top of route, just make sure you’re looking back for the ball,’” Arnold said. “One of the refs broke it down. He was like, ‘People aren’t really used to this.’ They’re not used to receivers getting up in your face and being right here running the route for you.’