The Terrion Arnold situation is heartbreaking, but it’s not the indictment of Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell some claim
Detroit Lions are suddenly the target of some wildly over-the-top reactions after the Terrion Arnold situation. Before declaring this the downfall of Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell, it’s worth remembering what actually happened on draft night and why the process mattered.
The latest Terrion Arnold news is heartbreaking. There’s really no other way to talk about it. It’s upsetting for Detroit Lions fans, and it’s upsetting for the Lions themselves. Arnold was a first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, a player the organization pinned real hopes on. And I know there’s going to be a lot of revisionist history about Arnold over the next few days, weeks, and months. But before that wave hits, let’s set the record straight.
Arnold was the consensus top cornerback in the 2024 draft
One of the biggest things people might try to tell you is that Arnold was not good coming out of college, or that the Lions shouldn’t have drafted him. Going into the 2024 NFL Draft, Terrion Arnold was considered the No. 1 cornerback in the entire class. He was the consensus top guy by every draft expert out there. Arnold was supposed to go in the early teens. The only reason he didn’t is because, in an unprecedented move, the first 14 picks were all offensive players. Nobody saw that coming. Go back and look at every mock draft from that year. No one predicted it.
After that run, teams prioritized defensive linemen over cornerbacks, which pushed Arnold down the board to a spot where Detroit felt comfortable trading up from 29 to 24 to get him. People will point out that Quinyon Mitchell got picked before him. Fine. The Eagles liked Mitchell more. But the Lions did not reach for a player nobody expected to be there. They grabbed the guy who was expected to be the top corner in the draft. That’s all you can really do.
The 2024 class looks rough, but that doesn’t change the process
I’m not going to dispute it. The 2024 draft class looks horrible. They haven’t had much success, or really any. Unless Ennis Rakestraw is able to come out in 2026 and finally be the player everyone thought he could be coming out of college, you could pretty much wash the whole class out. But here’s the thing about the draft: all you can do is your due diligence. Watch the film, scout the player, meet the player. Once that guy gets to the league, there’s nothing left but coaching him and hoping it works out. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.
For the Lions, more often than not, it has worked out. Their 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026 drafts all produced starters. Detroit has been very good at drafting. That’s why it’s so strange to me that there are articles out there today suggesting the Arnold situation is “the beginning of the end” for coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes.
Blaming Holmes and Campbell makes no sense
As a reporter, I was around Arnold. I don’t know him personally, but I know him from a reporter’s perspective. At the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, ask anybody who was there. They were captivated by him. He told stories, brought his parents with him to visit the Lions, and everything about him demonstrated a smart, young, intelligent kid who had the world in front of him.
At the end of the day, everything is alleged. We don’t know that Arnold really did this. But even if it’s true, what you have is someone who is a good person, someone who had the world on a string, who potentially listened to the wrong people one time, and it became the biggest mistake of his life. How is that Brad Holmes’ fault? How is that Dan Campbell’s fault? All they did was go out and find a player they believed best fit their team.
This does not change Detroit’s outlook
Arnold’s rookie season was hot and cold. His second season, I thought he was starting to show real strides. I always go back to that game against Cincinnati, where he went up against Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase and looked great. He looked like the cornerback everyone expected him to be. That might have been the player we were going to get in 2026, a guy finally figuring it out. But now the concern is completely different.
I don’t think this changes the Lions one iota. Arnold had a 52 grade on Pro Football Focus. He was a player everybody was worried might become a draft bust. If Detroit goes out and grabs a corner from free agency or makes a trade within reason, they’re going to come out better in the secondary than they were before.
This team is still very well built, one of the 10 youngest in the league, full of All-Pros, Pro Bowlers, great coaches, and the easiest schedule in the NFL. A player who was fighting for his starting job getting arrested is not a signal that this organization is about to collapse. All you need is some common sense to know that.
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