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The Lions passed in the draft of Tua Tagovailoa or Justin Herbert in 2020 and instead chose cornerback Jeff Okuda with the third overall choice. Okuda played 10 games in two seasons, with groin surgery ending his new season before tearing Achilles to just 48 games in 2021.
The Lions plan to keep Okuda in the corner when he returns from injury this summer, still believing that Okuda can stand out.
“Right now we see it as a corner, but again a lot of it will be as we keep discussing and depending on who we add or how we add, you never know,” Lions coach Dan Campbell told Dave Birkett of Detroit Free Press. “We are constantly talking about our staff and what is best for them to move forward. What is best for us.
“Should this man go to safety?” Should this man go for nickel? Do we have to push this man back into the corner? How are our injured boys? What do we add? So we’re just going to have a dialogue about that all the time, but yeah, we see Jeff there, and what we need to do is just keep adding pieces that can compete. ”
Okuda posted a video on social media on Monday showing him training on the field, including spinning his back. The one-minute video was titled “169 days. February was special! The Lord is Great. “
Campbell said Okuda and the protected area of Romeo Okvara, also recovering from torn Achilles, must return to participate in at least part of the training camp.
“Both of the guys we think are right where they need to be right now are probably the best way to describe it,” Campbell said. “And while everything is going well with their recovery, we hope to have them in the training camp, at least on a limited basis, which would be good. So we hope for the season for both of them if they are ready. “