ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions’ secondary is undergoing a facelift. Yet the new guys will need no introductions.

Tracy Walker is expected to replace Glover Quin in the starting lineup at safety. He joined the club as a third-round pick just last year, but goes way back with cornerback Darius Slay. They’re cousins who both attended Brunswick High, a school tucked away in the far southeastern corner of Georgia along the Atlantic coast.

Now Detroit has added another starter to the mix: Justin Coleman, who happens to hail from the very same school.

That’s right. Three-fifths of Detroit’s starting secondary are alumni of Brunswick High.

“I got a couple years with Darius (in high school), and it was great playing with him,” Coleman said. “We never knew that we were both going to get to this point, but in high school he was one of the best players on the field and he kind of just motivated me to get on the field. He kind of helped me along the way, just being a leader that he is, and I tried to just compete with him.”

Slay was an all-state defensive back, as you might expect, but he actually preferred running back in those days. He rushed for more than 1,300 yards and 15 touchdowns as a senior in 2008, and intercepted six passes with two touchdown returns on defense.

“I took this pitch one time out of the backfield and reversed it, like, 10 times and took it like 80 yards,” Slay told MLive. "I put it on Instagram one time, but I deleted it because I had so many pictures.

“They pitched it to me, and one dude caught me. He was hatin’ and spinned me around, so I just went in a circle. I was only a freshman, about 140 (pounds), so I was like, ‘Can’t let no one hit me.’ So I just started running that way, and then everyone pretty much was getting tired. I wasn’t getting tired, so I just kept going back and forth until I saw the opening. It was crazy, man. Crowd went crazy. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

But Coleman’s best story about Slay actually occurred in track and field. They were both outstanding sprinters, and were favorites to win the 4 x 100 meter relay. But it was cold that day, and Slay -- not exactly a big fan of cold weather, as it turns out -- was reluctant to run.

“He basically was the fastest guy out there,” Coleman said of Slay. "But it was too cold, and we needed him to run for us in the 4 x 100. And he just didn’t want to run. We were like, ‘Go out there and warm up, you’ll get warm enough to run.’

“He did that, and he ended up winning the race.”

Slay went on to junior college, then Mississippi State before landing in Detroit as a second-round pick in 2013. He’s since turned himself into an All-Pro and appeared in the last two Pro Bowls.

But the Jamal Agnew injury last season revealed Detroit’s depth issues around him. So Detroit is ripping up the secondary and putting it back together. Quin and Nevin Lawson are both out, and Coleman has been added to the mix. It remains unclear whether he’ll start in the slot, where he played 90 percent of his snaps in Seattle, or on the outside, where he split his time while in New England. But at $9 million annually, you can bet he’ll be in the starting lineup someplace alongside Slay.

That’s more money than any other slot corner makes in the game, but Coleman wasn’t giving any hints about his future role.

“I kind of consider myself just another player to come and help the team,” Coleman said. "The money doesn’t matter. Of course it matters off the field -- it helps my family out and help the people that are close to me -- but I just came here to help the team win and get to where we get to need to be.

“I do a lot of studying of corners, safety, nickel, it doesn’t matter. But I feel like wherever I’m capable of playing, wherever I can help, I’m definitely gonna give my best and study it as much as I can possibly study it and do my best at it.”

Coleman, 25, allowed a QB rating of 82.5 on balls thrown his way in the slot last year. That was seventh best among all players who played at least half their team’s nickel snaps. And he allowed 0.94 yards per coverage snap, which was sixth best. For comparison, Lawson, who led Detroit in nickel snaps, allowed a QB rating of 113.8 (38th) and 1.18 yards per coverage snap (28th).

Before that, Coleman spent two seasons playing for Patricia in New England. He was just an undrafted guy out of Tennessee back then, and bounced around between training camps and practice squads in Minnesota, New England and Seattle before finally earning his break with the Patriots.

Three weeks later, he was forced into action in a win against Jacksonville. A month later, he earned his first NFL start. He wound playing in 10 games as a rookie that season. And now here he is all these years later, the highest-paid player at his position in the league.

“I love this situation simply because I have an opportunity -- an opportunity to play,” Coleman said. “Matt Patricia is a wonderful coach, and I just thank him for giving me another opportunity, I met him in New England, and it’s just a coincidence that I met him here. I’m going to give it my all for this team, just for giving me another opportunity.”