Unfortunate trend surrounding Lions CB Ennis Rakestraw may never see him reach his full potential

When the Detroit Lions ended the 2023 season, the thing everyone knew they needed was cornerback help. That's why when the Lions walked out of the 2024 NFL Draft with both Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw in the first two rounds, it felt like major steals.

Going into Week 2 of the 2024 season, Rakestraw was gearing up for his first NFL start before the game and then suffered a hamstring injury during warm-ups and wound up not being able to play in the game. From there, Rakestraw saw the field very little in his rookie season and wound up getting put on season season-ending injured reserve in November.

Injuries happen. They're pretty hard for any player to avoid. The hope was that he'd come into camp this summer and have a big showout. Instead, it's been a rough two weeks for the cornerback. He suffered a chest contusion on the second day of camp, and that kept him out a few days. Then he had a rough Hall of Fame game, and on Sunday, he suffered another injury. This time it's a shoulder injury. We don't know the severity of the injury at this time, and we'll wait for word from the Lions on it, but this is not a good look for Rakestraw.

After the game on Thursday, we said we weren't pulling the panic lever on him, and we're still not. We're not going to use the word bust because it's far too early to start throwing that type of language around. But we will say that these injuries are really affecting Rakesraw's growth right now. The expectation for him was that he would be the CB4 off the bench to rotate in at either outside or nickel. Now, as he continues to be out, Rock Ya-Sin is moving up the depth chart with his solid play. Here's hoping Rakestraw can bounce back.