Reason why is necessary for Detriot Lions defensive backs to always show strength and adapt to the game change and play

The Lions’ general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell will have to make some tough choices next week when they cut the squad from 90 players in training camp to 53 to start the regular season.

Campbell has said more than once that a player’s chances of making the team are better if he can do more. The defense is the best place on this football team to show that.

Brian Branch can play nickel corner and safety, and Amik Robertson can play both cornerback spots very well. This Lions defense has a lot of guys who can play more than one position well. In the secondary, guys like Rock Ya-Sin, Avonte Maddox, and Erick Hallett II can play outside corner, nickel, and safety. They have been great at making plays in practice and the preseason while doing all three.

This week, head coach Dan Campbell said, “The more versatile we are—you could say that about the whole team—the back end, the more things you can do.” Now you can really get the best players you think will help you on game day because of special teams or because, “Hey, this guy can play safety, nickel, outside corner, and dime linebacker if we need him.”

“It allows you to bring the best to gameday and now all three phases, you can mix and match and no longer are worried about, ‘This guy can only go in to do this job, then this guy can only go in to do such job,’ and now pretty soon you’re just like – it just gets hard.”

Maddox has been a professional football player for eight years. He comes from Philadelphia, where the Eagles’ defense has made a living over the last few years by adding players like Malcom Jenkins and Cooper DeJean to their secondary.

That’s because a lot more guys do it here, Maddox said after practice on Tuesday. “That’s encouraging to see.”

Maddox likes seeing the Lions secondary come together in camp. He calls them “young and intense.” He believes they have a good chance of doing well.

“When you got a lot of guys who have the skills and ball, it makes everyone in the room desire to step up their game to another level,” he noted.