'Cerebral' Lions rookies Tabor, Agnew add healthy competition at CB

Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Florida CB Teez Tabor: It's hard not to like a player like me Florida CB Teez Tabor explains why it's hard not to like a player like him at the NFL combine Sunday, March 5, 2017. Video by Dave Birkett, DFP.

Tony Oden served two seasons as an assistant at Army in the late 1990s, when he was around some of the smartest defensive backs he's ever coached.

After spending the last six weeks with draft picks Teez Tabor and Jamal Agnew, Oden, now the Detroit Lions cornerbacks coach, said his young cornerbacks would have fit right in with those old West Point secondaries in terms of their intelligence.

"Those were some cerebral guys, the West Point guys," Oden said earlier this spring. "Obviously, they’re the future leaders of our world. ... Those are the type of questions that I’m hearing in the meeting room now, some last year and some now, but just out of this rookie class that are reminiscent of that."

Both Tabor and Agnew are expected to compete for playing time at cornerback for the Lions this fall.

Tabor, a second-round pick, could challenge Nevin Lawson and D.J. Hayden for time opposite Darius Slay, and Agnew spent most of the spring working behind Quandre Diggs and Hayden at the slot cornerback position.

Both players flashed their playmaking ability at times during organized team activities and mandatory minicamp, and both looked like rookies at times, as well.

But Oden said he expects both to develop quickly as rookies because of their mental makeup.

"They’re smart," Oden said. "They’re smart. The entire rookie class is smart. They’re good."

In meetings, Oden said he's been able to move at a quicker pace because of his rookies' intelligence.

"You don’t have to hold back, you can give them more, you can pour into them more and then now, the sky’s the limit," Oden said.

As an example: Oden said Tabor asks "veteran-type" questions about different formation adjustments within the Lions' defense.

That knowledge plays into the instincts and "reactionary athleticism" that general manager Bob Quinn spoke about earlier this spring when he downplayed concerns about Tabor's speed.

"I consider him a balcony thinker as opposed to a ground-level floor thinker," Oden said. "So he wants to know what the guy next to him is doing. Before I go over it he starts to think about, 'OK, what if this route happens? What’s our adjustment vs. that?' But it’s in a positive way. Sometimes you get guys doing it, trying to just kind of get on your good side. He’s doing it because it’s a legit question."

Both Tabor and Agnew have a ways to go before they earn regular reps at cornerback, which in one off-season has transformed into one of the deepest units on the team.

For now, Oden said the rookies are just part of what he expects to be a "good, healthy competition" for playing time.

"They’re progressing," Oden said. "They’re still rookies. They are not anointed. They’re rookies."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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