Two lost years inspired Ennis Rakestraw to make a couple changes this offseason. He picked up yoga, and added more muscle in his upper body. The aim was to prepare himself for the rigors of a full NFL season.
"Everybody's preaching to me, ‘E, stay healthy, we gonna need you,'" Rakestraw said Tuesday after practice. "So that’s what I’m trying to do.
The former second-round pick has played just 46 snaps on defense through two seasons with the Lions. He was limited by core muscle and hamstring injuries as a rookie and suffered a season-ending shoulder injury when he collided with a receiver early in training camp in year two. He enters year three with a new perspective.
"I changed my mind from thinking long-term," he said. "I’m on short term right now, and then long-term will eventually pick up. Healthy today, go pray, thank God, go fix what I need to fix tomorrow."
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An opportunity beckons for Rakestraw. The Lions have a void at corner after releasing Terrion Arnold amid his off-field issues. Rakestraw is in a camp battle with Rock Ya-Sin to fill it. Rakestraw and Ya-Sin have split the first-team reps opposite CB1 D.J. Reed, with Ya-Sin probably out to the early lead. Nick Whiteside is playing his way into the race as well.
Rakestraw has been around the ball a lot. His coverage in team drills has generally been tight. But he hasn't made many plays on the ball, winding up on the wrong end of some contested catches. He was burned a couple times by Jameson Williams in 1 on 1's on Tuesday -- who hasn't been? -- but rebounded with solid coverage in team drills.
"Still can get better," he said. "Need improvement. I be in the area, I need to start disrupting the ball a little bit more. That’s about it. Getting reps with the 1’s, I kind of knew coming in, I’ll move in and out, nickel, outside corner, just being versatile."
Dan Campbell and the Lions prefer Rakestraw on the outside. That's where he played the bulk of his snaps in college. And that's his clearest path to a consistent role this season, with Christian Izien, Roger McCreary and rookie Keith Abney II all vying for the job in the slot.
"Look, he's got excellent feet," Campbell said on the first day of camp. "His hips, man, his change of direction. He's got ball skills. He can track the ball down the field. There's just things that he's got and there's a natural ability to him that you feel like is conducive to playing outside."
Rakestraw played his first two seasons around 188, 190 lbs. He bulked up in his shoulders and neck this offseason, but has shed some weight in camp and settled in around 192, which is where he intends to stay. Rakestraw has the tools. Whether his body can withstand 20-plus weeks of punishment remains to be seen.
"And then mentally, that's where I think you guys are going to see him take the biggest jump," Campbell said. "Understanding, recognizing formations, what do we need him to do on this call? Not just going out thinking, 'I got this guy. I got my man.' No, learn to play with leverage. Understand where the safety’s at. Understand where your help is. That's where I've seen the biggest jump."
The vision was clear when the Lions drafted Arnold and Rakestraw with their first two picks in the 2024 draft. They believed they'd solved a longtime position of need. After a year spent learning from veteran Carlton Davis III, Arnold and Rakestraw would form a dynamic duo at corner for several years to come.
Now Arnold is gone and Rakestraw remains an unknown. Rakestraw and sixth-round pick Christian Mahogany might be the only players who can salvage that draft class for Detroit. Rakestraw is hungry to prove himself, not for the haters who have come for him on social media the past two years, but for the team that still believes in him.
"I feel eager, because a lot of things been happening off the field. I gotta step up big this year, just for my last name and the Lions’ name. First, I get all the bad rap from the media sometimes, and then for my teammates, they depend on me. They see the work I put in, it’s a lot of stuff that a lot of people don’t see on the inside. I just gotta piece it together, so when it’s time to show, I can show."
On Monday, Campbell said Rakestraw's performance in camp has been a mix of "flashes" and "inconsistencies," with the former starting to outweigh the latter. This was more or less the case on Tuesday when Rakestraw had a rough go of it against Williams in 1 on 1's, first getting beat cleanly on a slant, then losing his feet at the line and giving up a long touchdown. On the first completion, at least, Rakestraw battled back to punch the ball out of Williams' hands as Williams turned upfield.
"Then we got into team segments, I didn’t allow nothin," Rakestraw said. "That’s why I keep saying 'next play.' It goes with my position. You’re going to get beat at DB. If you go out there and still think about what happened last play, it could happen again and again and again, and that’s when bad stuff happens. Next-play mentality with everything I do in my life now."
For Rakestraw, the short-term will take care of the long-term, one healthy day at a time. His talent can take care of the rest.
