Lions’ Arnold to wear No. 0: ‘Ain’t nobody like me’

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Terrion Arnold was all smiles as he arrived at the Detroit Lions‘ practice facility on Friday for his first day of rookie minicamp sporting No. 0.

The Lions’ first-round pick said he chose the number because “ain’t nobody like me.”

Arnold, a cornerback, is just the third player in franchise history to select No. 0, joining FB Johnny Olszewski (1961) and WR Marvin Jones Jr. (2023).

“When I say it ain’t nobody like me, it’s talking about the secondary,” said Arnold, the 24th overall pick out of Alabama. “Obviously, last year in this secondary, we had ups and downs, but we’re going to be exciting, we’re going to be dynamic, we’re going to play fast and it ain’t going to be nobody like us.

“So, when I say it ain’t nobody like me, it ain’t nobody like me.”

Despite reaching the NFC Championship for the first time since the 1991 season, Detroit’s defense allowed 34 completions thrown at least 20 yards downfield, which tied with the Houston Texans for the second most in the league, behind the Cincinnati Bengals (35).

Detroit’s defense also allowed 28 passing TDs last year, which was sixth worst in the league, and Arnold said he wants to help fix those issues immediately.

He joins second-round draft pick Ennis Rakestraw Jr. — who was also at rookie minicamp — as well as veterans Carlton Davis and Amik Robertson as new CB additions for the Lions.

Arnold, a 2023 first-team AP All-American, tied for the most interceptions (5) and pass breakups (12) in the SEC last season while allowing just one completion on 14 attempts on passes thrown 20+ yards.

However, Lions assistant general manager Ray Agnew says he’ll have to earn his spot, like all of the other players, after they loaded up at the cornerback position this offseason.

“I’m sure Rakestraw thinks he’s better and Terrion thinks he’s better so they’re going to compete, which is a great thing for us. We want competitiveness,” Agnew said. “We don’t want guys that bow down to people. We want guys to compete and think they’re going to win the spot. I think both of those guys think they will start, and they’ve got their work cut out for them.”

By selecting Arnold and Rakestraw, it marked the first time in the common draft era that the Lions have picked a defensive back with each of their first two picks. During rookie minicamp, the teammates embraced each other, even joining each other’s media scrums where they asked questions.

“Happy to be out there with those guys, everybody running full speed. We made mistakes today, but we’re going to be better,” Rakestraw Jr. said.

Arnold said his goal in Detroit is to win a Super Bowl, so much so that if his mom was on the field lining up against him as a receiver, he “would jam her into the dirt” because he wants to win that bad.

“I’ll never forget one time my mom kicked my tooth out because we was just going at it so hard, so if my mom was out here right now and she lined up across me as a receiver, I would jam her into the dirt,” Arnold said, while describing his competitiveness. “That’s my mindset, and my mom knows that right now. I just mean it in the simple aspect of like football-wise, that’s just the way that I think and the way that I was brought up.”