Detroit Lions looking to upgrade at cornerback
By Jeff Adcox
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the new defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions want to stockpile some depth at cornerback. He does, after all, have a background in that area.
Teryl Austin, who was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive backs coach for the last three seasons, wants to limit the big plays that the Lions gave up on a far too regular basis last year.
He told the team web site that one of the ways he intends to accomplish that is to shore up the defensive backfield.
“My feeling is this. In the NFL, you can’t have enough corners,” Austin said. “We had three pretty good corners (in Baltimore) last year and we had our work cut out for us. So, I think that obviously, that would probably be an area that we would want to make sure we strengthen up.”
Austin, like all defensive coordinators, also wants to place an emphasis on getting more turnovers.
The Lions had 15 interceptions last year, which ranked them 17th in the league. The team also recovered just seven fumbles, which put them in 24th place among the 32 teams.