Lions have a new slot CB to develop in 5th-round pick Keith Abney
Keith Abney played exclusively at outside CB at Arizona State, but Lions GM Brad Holmes believes he'll be a slot CB in NFL after picking him in draft.
Keith Abney II never played slot cornerback in college. He was ticketed for nickel duties before his sophomore season, but when Arizona State lost a starting cornerback to the transfer portal Abney moved outside. Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes saw Abney excel in his two seasons as a starting outside cornerback for the Sun Devils, when he had five interceptions and forced two fumbles.
But Holmes said Abney, the Lions’ first of two fifth-round picks in last week’s NFL draft, “might tilt a little bit more” to playing inside in Detroit. “He’s another instinctive guy that he could find the football, he can trigger, he can tackle, he’s pretty sticky,” Holmes said Saturday in Allen Park after the draft. “He was just a simple one [for us to draft] because we had him ranked a couple rounds higher than where he was, so that was a no-brainer for us.
” The Lions return starting outside cornerbacks D. J. Reed and Terrion Arnold, plus do-it-all backups Rock Ya-Sin and Avonte Maddox, and added two potential slot cornerbacks in free agency in Roger McCreary and Christian Izien .
McCreary played 167 of his 210 coverage snaps out of the slot last season for the Los Angeles Rams, according to the NFL’s Next Gen stats , while Izien started at slot corner for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers early in his career before moving to safety. READ MORE: Playoff miss was 'kick in the rear' to get Lions back on right draft track Abney, a shade under 5 feet 10 and 187 pounds, has similar size to Izien and McCreary. And while Holmes said that won’t hinder Abney’s ability to play outside – “I do think he can play outside for sure,” Holmes said – he said Abney is rich in two traits he looks for in slot corners: toughness and instincts.