If you ask Brad Holmes, Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw were the top two cornerbacks in the draft. The Lions walked away with both. And what could they be as a tandem?
"A force to be reckoned with," Rakestraw said after the Lions took him 61st overall Friday night. "We’re gonna fit the culture. We’re gonna leave it better than we found it, or as (strong) as we found it. They've already established their DNA, almost being in the Super Bowl. We’re just happy to learn from those guys and keep the train moving."
In one view, it was a surprise that Rakestraw was still on the board late in the second round. Holmes and the Lions "didn't even know if he was going to make it out of" the first, and certainly didn't think think he would fall to 61. In another view, it's a triumph that Rakestraw went as high as he did -- or that he got drafted at all.
"Going into my senior year (of high school), I wasn’t let into the Under Armour All-American camp," Rakestraw said.
Not only that, Rakestraw was turned away at the gate by a coach who had told him to come.
"I was at the gate, Coach was supposed to let me in, but then he came back and said some of the guys said I don’t look like a Power Five athlete because I was so small," Rakestraw said. "I called my mom, she picked me up, I cried in the car and I put an oath to myself that for the rest of this year, every four- and five-star (recuit) I face is gonna feel me and I’m gonna show them I’m that type of guy. I did that and I got to this point. It’s always going to be a chip on my shoulder. I was born with it."
An unheralded recruit from Texas, Rakestraw had been on an unofficial visit to Kansas, tagging along with one of his teammates who held an offer from the Jayhawks. While there, they got a call from their high school coach that they were invited to the All-American camp, so they left that night and drove the four hours to make it. For Rakestraw, getting denied upon arrival while his teammate got to play "was a slap in my face and showed me that I needed to work a little bit harder because nobody believed in me."
Rakestraw spent the rest of that summer doing extra reps and putting on muscle. He was 15 pounds stronger by the start of the season and he was his school's No. 1 cornerback for the first time, in 6A football in Texas. Rakestraw was tasked with covering receivers "who were either draft picks or five-stars, the players of the year, and I shut 'em down," he said.
"I feel like any that’s when started turning on the tape and realizing that I was good (instead of) looking at my size and just writing me off," he said.
Rakestraw committed to Missouri, over heavy pursuit from Nick Saban and Alabama, "because I wanted to go to a program that wasn’t already built up." The Tigers were four games under .500 the five seasons prior, and went 5-5 in Rakestraw's freshman season. Last year, they went 11-2 and won the Cotton Bowl. Rakestraw says he was "just one small piece" of Mizzou's turnaround and calls it "a team effort.” He also calls himself "the tone-setter."
"My defense used to call me the firecracker of the team, because yeah, I’m a corner, but I’ll come up and set an edge and hit you like a linebacker. I just let my presence be felt every play that I’m out there," Rakestraw said.
Holmes was sold on Rakestraw when he watched him blanket LSU's receivers last season, two of whom were first-round picks Thursday night. Heisman winner and second overall pick Jayden Daniels didn't complete a single pass in Rakestraw's direction. Asked what goes through his mind when he's one-on-one with a receiver, Rakestraw said, ’It's me versus you, who wants to win? It’s my family on the line. And all the stuff they talk you up about, that’s not me. You gotta show me."
The Lions love Rakestraw's 'tude as much as his talent, and he has plenty of the latter. His is a quiet confidence. Holmes said he and Dan Campbell could feel it just talking to him during pre-draft meetings: "I just kind of felt 'dawg' exuding out of him."
"Not as loud and vocal and a vivid personality like Terrion was ... but it was something about Ennis, just the competitiveness, the drive, how he talked about his story, how he talked about his process, how he talks about the details of ever since he came out of high school in Texas and just the whole recruiting process," said Holmes. "I was just like, ‘Man, this guy’s one of the more competitive kids, just talking with him.’ And his tape shows the same thing.”
Rakestraw slid in the draft in part because of a lingering groin injury from last season that kept him out of the Senior Bowl and limited him at the combine. He ran his 40-yard dash at about 80 percent (and still clocked a 4.51). And his ball production left something to be desired at Missouri, with just one pick in four seasons. He'd counter by saying he had 24 pass breakups.
"I had one interception so you can say that’s not ball skills, but the PBU’s I make, you can tell that I’m judging the ball. There’s never been a time where I’ve jumped too early or anything. It's just me needing to be on the JUGS a little bit more, just fixing my technique and staying sharp. And as I do that, I feel like I’m going to have more interceptions. I’m going to be more effective in the league in that aspect of my game than I was in college, because now I know exactly what I need to work on," Rakestraw said.
The knocks on Rakestraw worked in the Lions' favor. They got a borderline first-round talent late in the second, and now they're set up at cornerback for years to come. Rakestraw admits he was "kind of shocked they picked me" after they drafted Arnold, but he also "didn't think (Arnold) would fall that low in the draft" himself. Holmes said the goal is to build a "suffocating defense" like the ones that Campbell and Aaron Glenn had in New Orleans. Rakestraw said he's "just happy to be a part of it."
"I’m where I’m supposed to be," he said. "I feel like I could’ve gone a lot earlier, but I can’t look at it that way. I'm in the best fit for me as possible, so I’m just gonna prove the Lions right and everybody else wrong."
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