Jeff Okudah lost his starting job late last season, and after the Detroit Lions added three new starters to their secondary in free agency, the fourth-year cornerback no longer had a firm grip on a roster spot.
So the Lions traded Okudah to the Atlanta Falcons on Tuesday for a fifth-round pick in this month’s NFL draft, adding extra capital to their coffers and giving Okudah a fresh start with the team he longed to play for when he left Ohio State three years ago.
Okudah, the No. 3 pick of the 2020 draft, was the highest-drafted cornerback this millennium but never made good on his immense talent in Detroit.
He elected to undergo sports hernia surgery to fix a lingering college injury late in his rocky rookie season, then tore his Achilles tendon in the season opener in 2021.
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Okudah returned last summer to win a starting job out of training camp, but had an up-and-down season on the Lions’ last-ranked defense. He started 15 games, intercepted one pass that he returned for a touchdown and played a key role in a September loss to the Minnesota Vikings, when the Lions held Justin Jefferson to a career-low 14 yards receiving. But he missed two games with shoulder and brain injuries, lost playing time to Mike Hughes late in the season and had rough outings against the Carolina Panthers and New York Jets late in the year.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said at the NFL’s spring meeting last month that he expected new additions Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson to have starting roles in the secondary this fall and that Okudah and third-year cornerback Jerry Jacobs, another starter last season, would have to compete for playing time.
Asked about Okudah’s long-term future in Detroit around the same time, Lions general manager Brad Holmes said Okudah still was in the developmental stage as a player.
“I talked to you guys about Jeff at the end of the season in terms of the unique thing about him is that he’s still growing,” Holmes said. “And he’s still learning as a player, even all the years that he’s been in the league already, it’s still been very minimal play time. I told you that last year was he was basically a rookie in terms of playing time, so he’s still got a lot of ability.”
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Okudah could compete for a starting job on a Falcons team that has been looking for a cornerback to pair with A.J. Terrell. Hughes sighed a one-year free agent deal with Atlanta earlier this spring, and the Falcons have until May to decide whether to pick up the fifth-year option on Okudah’s rookie contract.
The Lions could address their secondary further in the draft, but expect Sutton to hold down one starting cornerback spot this fall and have Moseley penciled for the other while he recovers from October knee surgery.
Gardner-Johnson can play either slot cornerback or safety, Jacobs has inside-outside flexibility at cornerback and the Lions re-signed Will Harris, who finished last season as their starting slot corner. At safety, the Lions return Tracy Walker, who is rehabbing from a torn Achilles, and Kerby Joseph.
“I told you guys at end of season, we’re going to add to our defense,” Holmes said last month. “We just needed to get better there. We’re just, we’re very young at that position, so to add some guys with some more experience, to add some guys with more versatility (in free agency was important). But we just wanted to get better there, and we still got some young guys that are still growing, but obviously, that was an area of emphasis and it will continue to be.”
The Lions now have nine picks in this year’s draft, including five of the first 81 choices and multiple picks in Rounds 1, 2, 5 and 6. Atlanta’s fifth-round pick is No. 159 overall.
The Lions currently do not have picks in Rounds 4 or 7.
Here are the Lions draft picks:
Round 1: 6 and 18
Round 2: 48 and 55
Round 3: 81
Round 5: 152 and 159
Round 6: 183 and 194
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.