Terrion Arnold hopes to channel Deion Sanders-type excitement with Lions

Allen Park — Terrion Arnold does not take lightly the fact that his new team, the Detroit Lions, traded up to grab him in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL Draft at Campus Martius.

As he prepares to start his NFL career, it’s one of the things that’s driving the former Alabama standout to have a career like electrifying Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders, Arnold said at the team’s headquarters in Allen Park on Friday.

“It’s a sacrifice they made,” Arnold said. “I’m going to reward them for that.”

Detroit was originally supposed to pick 29th in Thursday night's Round 1. The Lions traded a third-round pick to move up five spots to 24, where Detroit took Arnold off the board. According to Arnold, the rewards will feature big plays. He tallied five interceptions and 13 pass breakups during his final season with the Alabama Crimson Tide and said he wants to bring a Sanders-esque excitement to the league.

“You just think about excitement. You’re going to the game to see a show. It’s the same thing with me,” Arnold said. “When the ball is in the air, you know who coming down with it.”

Arnold’s introductory press conference was certainly a change of pace from the first-rounders in last year’s draft, running back Jahmyr Gibbs and linebacker Jack Campbell, who both have a bit of a shyness to them. 

No such shyness exists with Arnold. The 2023 AP All-America selection is brimming with confidence.

“Hard work and work ethic eliminates fear,” Arnold said. “So, for me to be able to be out here and be confident and tell you I’m going to do this, line up and have this confidence no matter what, you have to put the work in, unless you’re delusional. So that’s where it comes from.”

While too much confidence can be a bad thing, Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said Arnold strikes the right balance.

“Oh, man. He’s a corner. That’s the one thing you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have confidence,” Townsend said. “You’ve got to be borderline cocky, but you’ve got to be humble at the same time. He’s a kid that has confidence, but having that confidence, he understands he has to work. That’s the one thing I felt from him when I talked to him.”

According to Arnold, the thing Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn saw in him was a little less defined. Arnold helped point out, “Coach, I think you see that dawg.” The respect goes both ways. Arnold said he considers himself “a quarterback in the cornerback (room).”

Glenn was a first-round pick (No. 12 overall) by the New York Jets in 1994 and made three Pro Bowls over a 15-year career at cornerback. In January, Glenn was voted the top coordinator in all of football in an NFLPA survey featuring more than 1,600 players. 

“After that, formulating a relationship with (Glenn) and being around him, I can tell that he wasn’t a pretender,” Arnold said. “A lot of times, real recognize real. And that’s the same thing, him recognizing me. I told him that I liked to be coached hard. Obviously, my background with coach (Nick) Saban and him just being a perfectionist.

“And then with (Glenn), he’s a player-first coach, so I feel like he’ll be able to get the best out of me. And not only that, he’ll develop me into becoming a better man. He’s seen a lot of things playing for 15 years in the NFL, man, you don’t take that lightly. I’m ready to learn from him.”

Of course, some of this has been gleaned from Arnold’s interactions with Glenn, but some of it has been a second-hand account from Arnold’s former Alabama teammate, Brian Branch, who was a Defensive Rookie of the Year contender at nickel corner in 2023.

Arnold said Branch is “kind of a quiet guy,” but “on the field, his instinct really is to kill you.”

“Branch, just to see … the growth that he had coming from Alabama to almost winning Defensive Rookie of the Year, it speaks volumes,” Arnold said. “The guy’s character is amazing. He’s a workaholic. I remember days at Alabama, he would just stay on the field and it would be him and I on the JUGS machines.”

Speaking of new teammates and JUGS machines, Arnold said he ran into wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who famously catches 202 balls after practice each day, at the team facility on Friday.

“I just asked him, ‘When can we get on the JUGS machine?’” Arnold said. 

Safe to say the new guy is going to fit in just fine. 

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi