Some blessings can be hard to spot when they first happen. Take for instance, when Jerry Jacobs tore his ACL in 2019.
A junior at Arkansas State at the time, Jacobs hurt his right knee when he landed wrong while breaking up a pass to George Pickens against Georgia.
Jacobs said his knee felt weird at the time, but he walked off the field under his own power and had no clue how serious it was until trainers checked his leg in the X-ray room at Georgia’s Sanford Stadium.
“They said it was a torn ACL,” Jacobs said. “And I had never heard of that before and I was like, ‘A torn ACL?’ And I just started crying cause they told me I was out for the season.”
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Jacobs could not walk for two months after surgery, but he rehabbed furiously and returned after transferring to Arkansas in 2020.
With that experience as his guide, Jacobs mostly avoided any worries when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last December. The undrafted-rookie-turned-Detroit-Lions-starting-cornerback was injured on a friendly-fire play against the Denver Broncos when teammate Jalen Elliott rolled into his leg while making a tackle.
And when Jacobs started walking three weeks after the injury, he knew his latest setback was little more than another chapter in his story of perseverance.
“When I seen that and the stuff I started doing, like jumping and backpedaling, man, I’m like, ‘Y’all, it’s crazy,’ ” Jacobs told the Free Press on Thursday in his first public comments since the injury. “I’m ready. I’m ready. I was like, ‘Jerry ain’t losing no step.’ You just got to get back and show them that you still got it and I can do that, so I’m just ready.”
Jacobs, who started nine games for the Lions last fall, said he is about 85% recovered from the knee injury that cost him the final four games of last season.
He is running, cutting, backpedaling and jumping, and while he has not practiced yet this summer, the Lions are hoping he can return to game action in the next six weeks.
The Lions placed three players on the reserve/physically unable to perform list at Tuesday’s cut to 80 players. All three, plus receiver Jameson Williams, who is on the reserve/nonfootball injury list with a torn ACL he suffered in January, will miss at least the first four games of the season.
Jacobs still could end up on the PUP list to start the season, but the Lions have held off on transferring him for now.Lions coach Dan Campbell said Jacobs is further along in his recovery than Williams, and how the Lions proceed with his availability will depend in part on how good the team feels about the rest of its roster at next week’s cut to 53 players.
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“A lot of it is not so much, ‘Hey, we’re going to have him Week 1, Week 2, Week 3,’ ” Campbell said. “It’s more, ‘Man, can we begin to get him some practice reps?’ Just slowly implement him in what we’re doing in practice. Whether it’s scout team cards, or running our defense, just a couple of plays, then he’s off to the side. Continue his rehab, strengthening, and then maybe the next day he’s able to get a little bit more. And then, hypothetically, he’s ready Week 5, let’s say. Well, shoot, he’s gotten practice for four weeks and he’s ready. Whereas if you just did PUP, he’s not up for four weeks and then first thing you do, you pull him off, he’s not going to be ready to play, he hadn’t gotten any practice reps.”
Jacobs was a revelation in an otherwise tough season for the Lions last fall.
He made 34 tackles, had seven pass breakups and forced one fumble while at times playing like the Lions’ best cornerback.
Once healthy this fall, he is expected to join Jeff Okudah and Will Harris in competition for the starting job opposite Amani Oruwariye.
“How I performed last year and the opportunity they gave me, I feel like I let it down and I let it go, but at the same time, talking to the coaches, everybody has an injury so it’s about how you come back off that injury,” Jacobs said. “And they’re still with me, and they still believe in me, they like how I performed last year … and they’re going to give me another shot. It’s a blessing.”
Jacobs said he has been pestering Lions general manager Brad Holmes to let him start practicing for weeks and is content now to “trust the process.”
“We’re not rushing, and that’s the plan,” he said. “If we can go Week 4, Week 5, hey, I’m back out there, so we’re just doing it one day at a time and I’m just going to go with their plan cause I know it’s the right plan in the right way.”
Once he’s back, Jacobs said he knows from experience he can be even better than he was before.
“I’m excited, man,” he said. “Just to play football again, I haven’t played it in months. And just to be out there with my bro, Jeff. To play with him on the same field, I can’t wait. Amani, he taught me a lot of things, Tracy (Walker), DeShon (Elliott), there’s a lot of guys in that room I’m ready to play with so I’m just going to take it one day at a time. When we get back on the field it’s going to be lethal, though. It’s going to be fun.”
Goff sits
Jared Goff did not practice Thursday, leaving all the quarterback reps to Tim Boyle and David Blough ahead of Sunday’s preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Campbell said Boyle likely will start and play with the first-team offense.
On Thursday, the Lions held a regular season-style practice, which included game-planning for the Steelers. The idea, Campbell said, was to introduce new players and new coaches to a game week-like schedule.
“It’s just more in-depth,” Campbell said.
Along with Goff, the Lions held Levi Onwuzurike, Julian Okwara, Ifeatu Melifonwu, C.J. Moore, Matt Nelson, Kevin Jarvis, Cedric Boswell and Eric Banks out of practice.