A Whole Team of Carlton Davis
The Lions have three new additions at cornerback that are remarkably similar — in playstyle and personality
Every coordinator, and by extension the team they are coaching, has a type of player they like. When they envision their unit operating at its apex, a coordinator has a prototype of each of the 11 players that make up their unit in mind. While the faces and names may not need to be specific, they have certain playstyles, certain skills and even personalities that make them fit in.
For Aaron Glenn, the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator who was a three-time Pro Bowl cornerback during his 15 year playing career, the additions the team has made this offseason have to feel like he manifested reality. Straight out of the pages of TikTok influencers with tapestries hanging in the background while they record in front of a ring light, the once-embattled defensive coordinator has to feel like he almost willed his three new additions to the cornerback room into existence.
First, the Lions added Carlton Davis from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Super Bowl-caliber corner embodies everything we know that Glenn wants in a corner. He is tough, physical and confident. He isn’t afraid to come up field to make tackles. Davis is a man-corner who is excellent in press coverage, and can body smaller receivers into the dirt.
If landing a player like Davis wasn’t enough, Glenn got two more rewards on draft weekend.
Detroit drafted two more Carlton Davises.
Yes, every player is different to an extent. And direct comparisons can be a fool's errand at times, but it is hard to overstate how similar the Lions’ three new corners are. They may be built a little differently — Davis is much bigger than the pair of rookie, and first round pick Terrion Arnold is slightly bigger than second rounder Ennis Rakestraw Jr. — but everything from the playstyle to the personality of these guys is the same. Confident. Funny. Passionate. Gritty.
“I’m happy we got guys like Carlton Davis,” Arnold said during a media session after rookie minicamp on Sunday. He said Davis had reached out to him since he was selected, and was “someone who could teach me how to be a pro.”
The bond between the two younger corners is already apparent too. Rakestraw, who went first, expressed excitement in the media meeting his new friend, adding “he’s really a clown”.
Detroit’s decision to spend its first two draft picks on players of the same position is an interesting one. Corner was obviously the Lions biggest need, especially after the unceremonious release of 17-game starter Cam Sutton, but there is an unsettling element to it.
Davis was brought in to be CB1, or at least he probably thinks so. Then Arnold, a day after his exuberant introduction to the hometown crowd on day 1, finds out his starting job is not guaranteed early on day 2 when the Lions selected Rakestraw.
"There will be a lot of competition in that room,” Ray Agnew, the Lions’ assistant general manager, said in a press session over the weekend. “Competition breeds the best out of anybody. We're excited about that."
It is a situation that can lead to a lot of unhealthy competition, though. Jealousy. Resentment. Someone is going to lose the job. It will almost definitely be one of the rookies.
I couldn’t blame either Arnold or Rakestraw for not liking the other right now. They are both, in effect, standing in front of the other’s dreams. But instead of the competition driving them apart, they are brought together by it.
“You gotta compete,” Rakestraw said. “You wanna go to a job where everyone is competing.”
“We’re gonna be here for a long time. We’re gonna grow together. We’re gonna excel together. Take our losses together, take them on the chin,” Arnold told reporters. “I just thank the organization for drafting both of us.”
Arnold even called in Rakestraw to join him during his media session, putting his arm around the fellow rookie as a show of love.
“I can already see day 1 its gonna be a fun experience,” Rakestraw said of the competition against his peer. “We both strive for success, strive to be great… we just gonna keep getting each other better every day.
“Whoever wins the job wins the job.”
The confidence that Davis is overflowing with is also evident in both of the rookies. Arnold, in a viral line you may have seen already, told reporters that he is so competitive he would even jam his mother into the dirt. He added that this competitive streak came from her, competing with his mom with races and wrestling matches as he was growing up.
Arnold had an impressive opening to rookie camp. He snagged an interception on a route where he may have initially been beaten before a great recovery put him in position to grab the ball. He also did well lined up against Sione Vaki, the Lions fourth round running back-safety hybrid who earned praise over the weekend for his impressive start to camp.
“He’s the first pick for the Lions for a reason,” Vaki said.