The Detroit Lions season opener couldn’t have gone worse, suffering a 27-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday afternoon. But while the Lions are licking their wounds after falling into an early hole in the NFC North, so is cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, whose tenure in Detroit got off to a rough start.
Ya-Sin only played two defensive snaps in Sunday’s loss to the Packers but still made a negative impact on the team. With a holding penalty that wiped out a pick-six by Brian Branch in the second half, the new addition has already found himself on shaky footing and needs to rebound in Week 2 to regain the trust of the coaching staff.
Rock Ya-Sin's Poor Week 1 Raises Questions for Lions
A former second-round pick, Ya-Sin had struggled in previous stops with the Indianapolis Colts, Las Vegas Raiders, Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. But the Lions believed they could mask his 98.6 passer rating allowed in coverage by using him more at safety and as a depth corner in case of emergency. The experiment went well during the preseason as Ya-Sin earned a 67.7 overall grade and 64.6 coverage grade according to Pro Football Focus.
Yet, the Lions were forced put the corner to the test when Terrion Arnold left Sunday’s loss against the Packers with a groin injury. He quickly failed that test, committing the aforementioned holding penalty which took away Branch's INT return for touchdown. This allowed the Packers to score another TD that effectively put the game out of reach.
Ya-Sin's struggles also forced Detroit to switch things up. Amik Robertson is best served as the Lions' slot cornerback, but PFF charted that he had more snaps on the outside (14) than in the slot (11) on Sunday afternoon. Most of those snaps also occurred after Arnold’s injury, which is an indictment on Ya-Sin’s ability to fill the role the Lions were hoping for.
Simply put, this is the last thing you want to see from a player brought in as one of Detroit's top depth options. Though he posted a very good 73.1 grade on 12 special teams snaps, he needs to be a player the Lions can turn to when things go south, like with Arnold on Sunday. If Detroit can't trust him in those situations, he's simply wasted space that could go to someone who'd make a bigger impact.