Dan Campbell explains Jeff Okudah’s lack of playing time in Week 17
Lions cornerback Jeff Okudah did not play much in Detroit’s Week 17 win over the Chicago Bears. The CB starting was only on the field for 17 defensive snaps. This is a significant drop for a player who has never been away from the field much of the season.
It comes a week after Okudah was benched for poor performance in the Lions’ loss to the Panthers. This is likely to cause some concern as Okudah has been a top performer in both coverage support and run support all through 2022.
Campbell, Lions head coach, was asked whether the diminished role was due to the illness Okudah went through in December That kept him out of practices.
“No, I would say it was a couple of things last week we talked about,” Campbell responded. “I thought he came out ready to work. It was always about getting Mike Hughes more playing time. Mike has earned the right to play. Okudah provided some gunner representatives for us, because Mike was going play more on the outside than Jeff. So they both played. No, listen, Jeff’s good. He’s helping us, man. He’s contributing.”
Okudah did indeed contribute on special teams as a gunner, but that’s not his typical usage. I haven’t gone through the entire game tape yet, but I haven’t seen Okudah play after the first three Chicago offensive drives. Hughes was able to fill the role of outside CB and did well.