Notes: Jerry Jacobs predicts ‘dominant’ secondary for Detroit Lions in 2023

The Detroit Lions secondary made their first statement in May, taking it to the team’s offense during OTAs and minicamp. The shift in power from an offense that ranked in the top-five last year to Detroit’s retooled defense was drastic and sudden. Even Jared Goff had to give it up.

“It’s been much stickier (coverage) and much harder for us to gain separation at this point in OTAs,” Goff said during minicamp. “And I think they’ve done a hell of a job making it harder on us and growing as a unit over there too.”

This offseason, the Lions got aggressive in improving their secondary, not only moving on from players like Jeff Okudah, Mike Hughes, and DeShon Elliott but focusing their free agent efforts on the best defensive backs available. Cameron Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley, and C.J. (Chauncey) Gardner-Johnson all got significant deals from Detroit, revamping the team’s entire look.

On Tuesday, cornerback Jerry Jacobs—who has seen this secondary at its worst over the past two seasons—joined NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” and talked about just how high expectations are now in the defensive backfield with all of the new additions.

“Cam Sutton has been in the league for seven years, so getting every knowledge from him. Emmanuel Moseley, he’s coming back from an injury, but he’s still in there 24/7. Chauncey, man. Chauncey, he’s gonna make the game more fun. I love his enthusiasm. I love the way he comes out there and talks trash. That just turns us up. Man, the guys that we added this offseason, I think that we’re going to be pretty dominant in the back end.”

Specifically, Jacobs talked about the swagger of the unit, led by Gardner-Johnson this offseason.

“Yeah, I’m riding with my guy. Chauncey, he already got some of the offensive guys started in OTAs and I’m right behind him. So things like that show you that he’s getting in people’s heads just by the way he talks.”

The Lions have a lot of room to improve from their performances on the back end.

How big of a jump will that be? We’ll have to wait and see. But you can watch the rest of Jacobs’ interview here.

• Congratulations to all of the Lions in love this offseason:

• A few of you in the comment section have already seen this, but I wanted to throw my endorsement behind it, too. Alex Rollins discovered how the Lions have countered the NFL evolution of getting smaller and quicker by focusing their offensive identity on OVERPOWERING their opponents:

• Dave Birkett put out his latest Lions 53-man roster projection, which features just one undrafted rookie.

• More good YouTube content here: An all-22 breakdown of the forever overlooked John Cominsky:

• Couldn’t agree with Mike Payton more—and I almost wrote this article myself—it’s time to sunset all the “kneecap” talk when discussing Dan Campbell.

• Awesome article here from Dave Birkett on how Jahmyr Gibbs and his childhood friend made a pact: if one of us becomes an NFL player, the other will be their full-time chef.