Following the Detroit Lions' season-ending loss to the Washington Commanders, cornerback Ennis Rakestraw Jr. revealed there were plans to play him in the slot.
Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition. Rakestraw battled injury during the campaign and didn't get much of a chance to see the field. His absence also allowed Amik Robertson to emerge and have a standout season.
One would assume the Lions will go back to their initial plan with Rakestraw and have him compete for a job in the slot in 2025 now that he's healthy.
However, head coach Dan Campbell made it clear that the plan is to actually to give Rakestraw looks on the boundary, where the Lions figure to have two starters already in Terrion Arnold and D.J. Reed.
"He's gonna have a chance to compete. We'd like to keep him outside right now and just let him go," Campbell said, per Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News.
This echoes what Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said last month.
"Lions DB coach Deshea Townsend said they're going to let Ennis Rakestraw focus on playing outside cornerback to start his second season," Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network reported.
While that would mean that Rakestraw is set to play a backup role this coming season, Campbell did leave the door open for him to play "if he's the best guy," Bianchi noted.
That's fine, but it's going to take plenty of struggles from either Arnold or Reed for Rakestraw to crack the starting lineup.
After the signing of Reed, and with Arnold also in the mix, we expected that Rakestraw would compete with Robertson for the slot cornerback job.
Clearly that is not in the cards right now, which gives Robertson a clear path to retain his 2024 role, where he thrived.
But the Lions would be wise to play Rakestraw in the slot during the offseason to get him ready just in case Robertson gets hurt.
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