Terrion Arnold has been impressive in coverage through his first three games at cornerback for the Detroit Lions. The first-round pick very much looks the part of a shutdown outside cornerback with his quickness, instincts and attitude.
There’s been a consistent issue for Arnold, however. Pass interference.
Arnold has been flagged for defensive pass interference four times in three games. That’s more than every other team in the league through three weeks except the Broncos all by himself.
The Lions cornerbacks coach, longtime NFL CB Deshea Townsend, isn’t worried about the flags on Arnold. He knows they’re an inevitable part of playing corner in the NFL.
“That’s the thing in the league; if you’re a DB and you’ve played, you’ve had at least one PI called on you,” Townsend said via Justin Rogers of the Detroit Football Network. “That’s just the nature of the business. He just has to keep playing. That’s the one thing that we have to continue to do is not worry about the penalties and just go play.
I always kind of joke around and tell them, ‘They can’t call 60 PIs, so just keep being close.’ That’s what we want. He’s been close in a lot of coverages and that’s the main thing. We want to continue to work on those little things and being close in coverage.”
Townsend continued on his first-round pupil,
“He’s been great. I look back to my rookie year and his year, and I would take his over mine. He’s been doing a great job.”
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