Janoris Jenkins made sense for the Detroit Lions three months ago, and now as the calendar moves toward July he still makes sense for a young secondary.
When the Detroit Lions signed Mike Hughes back in March, the former first-round pick became the second cornerback on the team with more than 600 NFL snaps on his resume. When he was drafted in April, albeit with some extra college time, rookie Chase Lucas became the third-oldest cornerback on the team.
Upon being a cap casualty of the Tennessee Titans in March, Janoris “Jackrabbit” Jenkins made some sense as a veteran corner the Lions could add. The 33-year old (34 in October) is not the shutdown corner he was in his prime with the Rams and Giants, but he spent some time (part of 2019 and all of 2020) with Lions’ defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn on the New Orleans Saints when Glenn was the Saints’ defensive backs coach.
Janoris Jenkins still makes sense for the Detroit Lions as a late signing
Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus has made a list of one trade or free agent acquisition for all 32 NFL teams before training camp starts. For the Lions, he went with Jenkins.
The Lions have young cornerbacks with potential in Jeff Okudah, Jerry Jacobs and Amani Oruwariye, but Okudah is coming off a torn Achilles and Jacobs tore his ACL in December. Jenkins is still a solid starting cornerback at 33 years old.
At this point in time, any leverage a remaining NFL free agent may have is gone shy of an injury desperation situation. Beyond the injury recoveries of Okudah and Jacobs, the Lions could quite simply use more proven commodities in their secondary.
Without doing the exact math, it’s fair to assume Jenkins’ 142 games, 138 starts and over 8,200 career snaps are a good bit more than the entire Lions’ cornerback group put together right now.
The question for Jenkins is if he would want to join a young team like the Lions, or if he’s willing wait it out, possibly into the season, for a contender to come calling.
Some former Lions are on Kyed’s list too, with Ndamukong Suh matched with the Los Angeles Rams, Trey Flowers matched with the New England Patriots and Jamie Collins matched with the Miami Dolphins.