The Detroit Lions were shellacked in Canton, Ohio on Thursday night during their preseason opener by a score of 34-7 against the Los Angeles Chargers, causing concern among Detroit fans who expected a much better performance.
On Friday, Lions beat writer Kory Woods of MLive.com joined the Crunch Time Sports podcast with Jeff Iafrate for a live chat to discuss Detroit's disappointing performance in depth, during which he sounded the alarm about a pair of Lions players who may need big performances over the rest of this fall to ensure their spots on the team's roster.
Former second round pick and cornerback Ennis Rakestraw was among those mentioned by Woods for what he thought wasn't a very good performance against LA.
"It wasn't a good showing, Ennis just has to go out there and make himself pop, he along with Broderic Martin are two guys I'm having on my watch like, 'Hey, you guys have to have some strong camps because they brought in veterans at those positions,'" Woods said during a live interview.
"Ennis is still young, they drafted him pretty high, I see them affording him more opportunities down the line to go ahead and clean up some mistakes that he had," Woods added, saying that the rust may have affected him.
"He still has a lot of room to grow," Woods added.
"I don't want to sit up here and be too premature with it but these are guys who could probably find themselves not making the roster or practice squad," Woods said.