Ennis Rakestraw’s rocky Lions training camp and Dan Campbell’s comments raise real questions about his roster spot
Detroit Lions fans keep asking what’s changed with Ennis Rakestraw. After Dan Campbell’s latest comments and what we’ve seen at camp, there are some real questions worth talking about.
Everyone keeps asking me what the sudden turn on Ennis Rakestraw. Let’s talk about it.
The Detroit Lions entered 2025 training camp hoping the second-year cornerback could emerge as the saving grace of their troubled 2024 NFL Draft class. At this point, that hope is fading. Rakestraw, the Lions’ second-round pick in 2024, has been inconsistent throughout camp, and Detroit coach Dan Campbell’s comments on Monday painted a picture that should concern anyone invested in the young corner’s future.
The 2024 draft class keeps getting worse
You have to understand the full context. This entire 2024 draft class has been rough for the Lions. Terrion Arnold is gone, no longer with the team, and getting looks from the Seahawks, Saints, and Texans. Sione Vaki is missing time with an injury, and now Jacob Saylors, Jabari Small, and Kai Robichaux are playing well enough that Vaki could be behind the 8-ball when he returns. There’s a real chance he might not make the squad. Giovanni Manu is injured, and most of us felt coming into camp that he probably wasn’t going to make it. Mehki Wingo? I just don’t see him. I see a lot of other guys making plays, but I don’t see Wingo out there doing it. Christian Mahogany is a starter and a pretty decent one, and that’s kind of the one savior of this class.
So Rakestraw was supposed to be the other guy who could maybe rescue the narrative around this group. And early on, that first week, week and a half, it looked pretty good. He was out there getting first-team reps. He wasn’t getting destroyed or beaten. But now you’re seeing second-team reps, second and third-team reps. Then Campbell comes out Monday and says Rakestraw has been up and down and needs to string together some good days.
Reading between the lines on Campbell’s comments
Here’s the thing. When you hear something like that, especially when it follows Campbell talking about how much he likes the cornerback room, how much he likes how Nick Whiteside is playing, how he likes Khalil Dorsey, how Rock Ya-Sin has been performing, and he’s saying all these good things, and then it shifts to Rakestraw being “up and down” and needing to “string together some good days,” you start to pick up on what’s really being communicated.
I’ve been covering Dan Campbell since 2021. You start to understand some of the things he’s saying even when he’s not actually saying them. To the untrained ear, it sounds like a normal guy having ups and downs who just needs a few good days to get his confidence back. But what I hear is: right now he’s not where we want him to be, and we’re not sure if he can get where we want him to be.
I think it says a lot that the Lions had Trevon Diggs come in for a tryout on Sunday. I don’t know if Diggs will get signed, but if he did, that would be a lot more bad news for Rakestraw than for anyone else in the room.
What’s going wrong?
It’s the inconsistency. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes there are really good moments. Then he gets burnt. Sometimes he’ll have sticky coverage but still allow the catch. Sometimes he’s getting called for penalties, or you see things where you think, OK, in a game, that’s defensive holding. It’s just not clean.
Physically, he looks great. He’s in shape. He’s not slow. He doesn’t look like a guy hampered by injuries. To me, if I had to guess, he seems like a guy who might have a confidence issue right now. It might be a mental thing. Some guys go through that. You can understand why: a guy comes into the league and his first two years he’s injured. You can see how that causes confidence problems, how you get in your head, how you worry about getting hurt again. And then if you look at the rest of your draft class and you’re the guy everybody is pegging as the one who could maybe save it, that’s a lot of pressure. Some guys get past that. Other guys don’t.
I’m not saying that’s definitively what it is. I don’t know where Rakestraw goes from here. There’s a lot of camp left, and there are still three preseason games to be played.
The cornerback depth chart as it stands
But if the Lions were going into the season right now and I had to pick six cornerbacks, I’m picking D.J. Reed, Rock Ya-Sin, Nick Whiteside, Khalil Dorsey, Keith Abney, and Roger McCreary. I just don’t see room for Rakestraw in there. You could argue he might beat out Dorsey, but Dorsey is such a good special teamer and he’s making plays on defense. McCreary is too important to lose. Abney is somebody the Lions see a big future in. Reed is your starter, Rock is your other starter, and Whiteside is looking very much like the CB3 who rotates in and out.
I’m struggling to see where Rakestraw fits at this point. But things can change. We’ll see what happens.
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