The dry humor that Aaron Rodgers showed as “Jeopardy!” host is alive and well now that he’s back on the football field.
Asked Thursday what he has seen from the Detroit Lions‘ young secondary so far this season, Rodgers joked, “A couple long last names.”
“I do have some familiarity with some of those guys, played against them last year,” Rodgers told Green Bay reporters. “I think the scheme is one that can help them. They do play similar coverages to the Saints with (Aaron Glenn as defensive coordinator). But I think they’re improving guys. I thought they did a nice job last year of getting better, being kind of thrust into the situation and last year they just played a bunch of man to kind of see what they had.”
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Glenn plays less man-to-man coverage and favors more split-safety looks than his predecessors, former Lions head coach Matt Patricia and former defensive coordinatorCory Undlin, and the other noticeable difference between the Lions’ defensive backfield this year and in seasons past is its youth.
The Lions will start two rookie cornerbacks Monday, Ifeatu Melifonwu and slot cornerback A.J. Parker, along with third-year vet Amani Oruwariye, which has Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, licking his lips.
“There’s not a lot of tape on 26 (Melifonwu), obviously,” Rodgers said. “But anytime you’ve got young guys, you’re going to test them.”
A third-round pick out of Syracuse, Melifonwu will make his first NFL start Monday in place of Jeff Okudah, who ruptured his Achilles tendon and is out for the season.
Melifonwu said this week he is “looking forward” to his new, expanded role, and Glenn said Friday the rookie is ready for whatever comes his way.
“Welcome to the NFL as a rookie corner,” Glenn said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, when you were drafted, where you came from. I think every quarterback and every offensive coordinator’s gong to try a rookie DB. But it’s all about playing that position. And I think he expects it. We expect it. He’s been having good practices, he’s been having a good training camp and look forward to seeing the player play.”
Last year, Rodgers was aggressive in going after Okudah in his first career NFL game, throwing nine passes into his coverage area and completing six of those balls for 96 yards.
Glenn, who played 15 years as an NFL cornerback, said he remembers getting a similar treatment in his first career game — against Hall of Famers Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and the Buffalo Bills.
“I recall the first play, my coach was yelling at me cause I was up in Andre Reed’s face,” Glenn said. “I said, ‘Hey, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to go down challenging.’ Luckily we had a good game. We won that game, but I do remember it. And like every corner understands, they know. We don’t have to remind Iffy about that. Only thing that we want to make sure Iffy does is go out there and play well, play hard. I think he’ll be OK.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.