Detroit Lions' Brad Holmes 'kind of felt dog exuding' from NFL draft pick Ennis Rakestraw

When Brad Holmes sat down with Ennis Rakestraw Jr. on his pre-draft visit earlier this month, it didn't take long for the Detroit Lions general manager to see the one personality trait he requires in his football players.

"I just kind of felt dog exuding out of him," Holmes said Friday.

The Lions took Rakestraw with their only pick on Day 2 of the NFL draft, No. 61 overall, after trying to trade up into high-30s and low-40s for the cornerback.

Rakestraw started three seasons at Missouri and was considered one of the most physical cornerbacks in the draft, and Holmes said the Lions felt comfortable about doubling up at the position — they took Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold in Round 1 Thursday — in part because of Rakestaw's ability to thrive in the face of adversity.

"That’s something that really is very important to us when we’re talking to these prospects about telling us about adverse moments and all the way they answer that question," Holmes said. "Some of it is football related, some of it is life related, but I just think that’s a very important, it’s a very critical factor that plays in the success of a lot of these players because when you get to this level it’s hard.

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"You can have a lot of success in college, but it’s hard up here. The competition is different, the grind, all the standard set on it, it’s hard. It’s pressure, so sometimes you just can have some days where you might not feel like doing that extra, you might not feel like, it can get late in the season, 'Man, I got to get up early again and go to the weight room and get treatment.' Like, it gets hard, and so guys that will grind through and persevere, grit’s all over this place. So the adversity piece, it’s a big deal for us and a lot of the guys that we’ve acquired, they’ve had good stories about perseverance."

Rakestraw's story started as an undersized cornerback, 140 or so pounds, who was overshadowed by his own teammates at Texas football power Duncanville High on the recruiting circuit.

He said Friday he was making an official visit to Kansas before his senior year of high school with a teammate who had an offer from the school when his coach called to tell them they were invited to an UnderArmour regional football camp.

Rakestraw and his teammate made the 4-hour drive from Lawrence, Kansas, to the camp that night, but Rakestraw said he was turned away at the gate when he arrived.

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"(The 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 that I was so small," Rakestraw said. "I called my mom, my mom picked me up, I cried in the car and I put an oath to myself that the rest of this year, every four- or five-star I face is going to feel me and I’m going to show them I’m that type of guy. And I did that and it got me this far. There’s always going to be a chip on my shoulder. I was born to wear it."

Rakestraw gained 10 to 15 pounds during his senior season and shut down top receivers like Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rakim Jarrett while helping Duncanville reach the Texas 6A state championship game.

He called the recruiting snub "a slap in my face" and said Friday it showed him "that I needed to work a little bit harder because nobody believed in me."

"I feel like that’s where I started getting my credit and people started turning on the tape and actually knowing that I was good besides looking at my size and just writing me off," he said.

The Lions rated Rakestraw plenty good in this year's draft.

Holmes said Rakestraw was the No. 2 cornerback on their board (behind Arnold) and in a small pool of players who stood apart from other prospects at the start of Friday's second round.

One of those players went early, and the Lions called to inquire about moving up, but did not have the draft capital — the traded their third-round pick to move up and take Arnold 24th overall on Thursday and do not have a fourth-round pick this year — to swing a deal.

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"We didn’t even know if he was going to make it out of really the first night," Holmes said. "When he was still there starting (Friday), I didn’t think he was going to last that long. But just — we were actually trying to get up, but we were just so far down. A lot of people don’t really want to trade that far down, so we just kind of stayed pat."

With Rakestraw and Arnold in the fold, the Lions have overhauled much of their secondary since last season.

They traded for Carlton Davis and signed Amik Robertson in free agency, cut Cam Sutton amid legal problems and let C.J. Gardner-Johnson walk in free agency.

Davis and Arnold project as the Lions' top two cornerbacks in 2024, with Brian Branch manning the slot and Rakestraw, Robertson and Emmanuel Moseley among those vying for playing time. Kerby Joseph and Ifeatu Melifonwu are penciled in at safety, though Branch also can play safety if a third cornerback pushes his way into the rotation.

Holmes said the Lions did not go into this year's draft "saying that we were going to get two corners in the first two rounds," though he acknowledged there was a desire to "find the future at that position."

Now, the Lions have two potential long-term fixes at corner, and competition brewing for playing time come training camp.

"It's a bloodbath in there now," Holmes said. "It is, and that’s what makes everything better. It makes the room better, it makes the defense better, it makes the team better. Competition just brings the best out of everybody."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions' NFL draft creating hellacious playing time battle at CB