When the Detroit Lions selected CB Jeff Okudah, the expectation was that he would quickly establish himself as a lockdown defensive back in the NFL.
As we know, that has not happened as Okudah has had to deal with multiple injuries, including tearing his Achilles tendon in Week 1 of the 2021 season against the San Francisco 49ers.
But now Okudah is fully recovered from his Achilles injury and he is ready to go out and prove he was deserving of being the No. 3 overall pick.
According to Lions head coach Dan Campbell, ‘nobody wants it more' than Jeff Okudah.
“Nobody wants it more than he does,” Campbell said at the beginning of training camp. “I mean he’s put in the work, he looks healthy, and I think at this point all you can do now is go to work and show what you’ve got and see if you can continue to progress. Because look, ultimately, that’s the thing here is he just hadn’t got a ton of football in him because of the injury.”
Detroit Lions CB Jeff Okudah torched repeatedly by Colts receivers
On Wednesday, Jeff Okudah and his teammates were in Indianapolis for their first joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts and according to Nolan Bianchi and Justin Rogers of the Detroit News, it was not pretty.
Bianchi and Rogers said Okudah “got beat repeatedly” and that if the Lions were looking for reassurance that Okudah was “turning a corner,” Wednesday was not a good day.
From Detroit News:
Okudah had the roughest day amongst a cornerback group that got beat early and often. He made just one pass breakup and was burned for a handful of touchdowns and big gains. And it wasn’t just that he was getting beat — that happened to Amani Oruwariye plenty, as well, which we’ll get to in a second — but rather there was a concerning trend of Colts receivers easily getting separation and turning medium gains into long gains.
Okudah got beat badly by the aforementioned Pierce route down the sideline and again on a dig route across the middle. He also allowed Michael Pittman to rip off big yardage and fourth-year Colts receiver Ashton Dulin to catch a fade pass for a touchdown during the lone red-zone target to Okudah’s assignment. He was simply a step behind all day.
Nation, what are your expectations for Jeff Okudah in 2022?
