ALLEN PARK: Kindle Vildor saw action against his former team last weekend, and it appears that the new Detroit Lions cornerback impressed enough to earn more defensive opportunities in the future.
Jerry Jacobs started the game and finished with 53 snaps. However, Vildor took his place for a couple of series, earning 17 snaps in his team debut before cramping ended his day. Jacobs has been stuck in a rut for a long time, and opposing quarterbacks have made it a point
to feed that side of the field. He’s been targeted seven times more than any other Lions defender, and he’s given up eight more catches.
Jacobs was the only defender targeted at least five times in Chicago, and he also led the way in New Orleans. On Thanksgiving, the Packers threw the ball nine times to Jacobs, and you get the picture.
Aaron Glenn, the defensive coordinator, has had a difficult situation. With Emmanuel Moseley and Ceedy Duce, the Lions attempted to fill those holes in free agency. However, Moseley is out for the season, and Duce is unlikely to return until late December or January, if at all, relegating Jacobs to a near-every-down starting position on defence.That’s where Vildor enters the equation. He’s the first player to crack that outside cornerback rotation this season, even with Steven Gilmore and Khalil Dorsey in Allen Park all season. Vildor put some good tape out there against the Bears, though. Pro Football Focus had Vildor rated as the team’s best defender in coverage, allowing three catches for only 11 yards in coverage. And when not counting snap limitations, PFF had Vildor as the team’s third-best defender on the day.
“Yeah, I thought it was solid. He did some good things for us,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Vildor on Monday. “There are a few things that just getting up to speed with our terminology, how we do things that we’ve got to get him caught up a little bit more on.
“But, overall, I thought he was what we expected him to be.” He’s competitive, intelligent, and quite crafty. So, yeah, I still see him and Jerry (Jacobs) working together in there a little bit.”
get him caught up a little more.
Jacobs has seen a lot of action over the last three seasons. Despite his difficulties, understanding the system and terminology is where he
Vildor, a fifth-round pick in 2020, started 22 games in three seasons in Chicago, so he’s had plenty of live reps. And, with this defence in desperate need of someone with ball skills, his nine interceptions over three seasons at Georgia Southern are difficult to overlook.
