Lions head coach Dan Campbell offered up a couple of injury updates during his scouting combine media session on Tuesday. And it’s good news for a couple of crucial defensive starters who were sorely missed in 2021.
EDGE Romeo Okwara and CB Jeff Okudah are both progressing well toward being back on the field in 2022, perhaps even for the preseason. Both suffered season-ending torn Achilles injuries. Okwara’s came in Week 4, while Okudah’s happened less than 50 snaps into Week 1.
“Both of those guys, we feel like right now are right where they need to be, is probably the best way to describe that,” Campbell told reporters. “And as long as everything stays the course with their recovery then we should have them hopefully by training camp, at least on a limited basis, which would be good.”
As for the speculation that Okudah could move to safety from cornerback, Campbell was direct.
“Right now, we see him as corner,” Campbell said. “But there again, a lot of this will be as we continue to discuss and depending on who we add or how we add, you never know. We’re constantly talking about our personnel and what’s best for them moving forward. What’s best for us?”
Coach Campbell further elaborated, speaking more broadly about the entire secondary personnel,
“Should this guy go to safety? Should this guy go to nickel? Should we bump this guy back out to corner? How are our injured guys? What do we add? So we just constantly are going to have dialogue about that, but yeah, we see Jeff out there and what we need to do is just continue to add pieces that can compete.”
Okudah has displayed flashes in his two seasons, but overall the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 draft has been a disappointment. He’s played in just 10 games in two years, recording 51 total tackles, three PDs and one INT.
