Lions place Jeff Okudah on IR, expected to sign cornerback soon

The Lions made it official by moving Okudah to IR.

The Detroit Lions made it official and placed cornerback Jeff Okudah on injured reserve on Monday. While Okudah would technically be allowed to return to practice after three weeks, Lions head coach Dan Campbell confirmed on Monday that Okudah suffered from a ruptured Achilles and his season is over.

“I hate that for him,” Campbell said. “He put in a lot of hard work. He really improved a ton from spring till now. Look, I hate it for him first and I hate it for us as a team because he was really coming around.”

With Okudah out for the remainder of the season, the Lions’ young cornerback room just got even thinner. On the active roster, the Lions have Amani Oruwariye, Ifeatu Melifonwu, AJ Parker, Jerry Jacobs and Bobby Price. That’s three rookies (Melifonwu, Parker, Jacobs) and an undrafted player from 2020 who played in a few dozen special teams snaps last year.

As a result, Campbell said he expects general manager Brad Holmes to add some cornerback in the very near future.

“We need to add someone just to help us on the overall roster, even from a practice stand point,” Campbell said. “We’re looking into that, Brad’s looking to it and that’s coming. That will probably be sooner than later. It’ll be somebody that’s going to help us just overall depth for sure.”

Detroit also has the option of promoting a player from thep ractice squad now that there’s an open spot on the roster. Detroit has veteran nickel cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman on the practice squad as well as second-year player Parnell Motley.