Rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold's introductory press conference in Allen Park Friday took place a couple hours after veteran wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown held a press conference to talk about the signing of his massive four-year contract extension this week.
The two will no-doubt find themselves squared off across from one another from time to time come training camp. The crafty receiver against the cornerback the Lions had as the best on their draft board should be a great matchup to watch.
Arnold asked St. Brown Friday when they could hit the jugs machine and start getting to work. That's one thing that jumped out about Arnold over the course of Friday's press conference. He's here to work, grow as a player and hopefully help the Lions take the next step.
"I feel like I'm a workaholic," Arnold said. "I know that nothing is going to be given to me. Even with (Detroit) trading up to get me. It means more to me.
"I'm a competitor. Hard work and work ethic eliminates fear. 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."
Arnold came to Detroit for a pre-draft visit and the Lions immediately recognized him as a good fit, not just from an X's and O's perspective but also his work ethic and mentality.
"He's got a challenge mindset. He's got a challenge mentality," Lions general manager Brad Holmes said of Arnold. "I mean, he's gritty. And he's still developing, that's the thing about him. He's still growing and he's still getting better.
"The mindset checked. That box was checked and obviously the player and the skillset checked. And as you guys know, it's more than just the skillset for us. That's the easy part. That's the easy part to see if someone is athletic, if someone can run fast, can change directions. You can do that day one. It's like how's a guy wired, and we felt good about that."
During that visit Arnold spent time with defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, who was also a first-round pick as a cornerback in 1994 and was a three-time Pro-Bowler over a career that spanned 15 seasons.
"When I first came here, he said he saw something in me," Arnold said of his pre-draft visit to Allen Park and conversations with Glenn. "I was like, 'Coach, you probably see that dog.' Just after that formulating a relationship with him and being around him, I could tell that he wasn't a pretender.
"A lot of times, real recognizes real. That's the same thing with him recognizing me. I told him I liked to be coached hard obviously with my background from (former Alabama) coach (Nick) Saban. Him just being a perfectionist.
"With (Glenn), he's a player-first coach, and I feel like he's going to get the best out of me. He's seen a lot of things playing for 15 years in the NFL and I don't take that lightly. I'm ready to learn from him."
Holmes has revamped the cornerback room this offseason, trading for Carlton Davis and signing Amik Robertson in free agency. The team also re-signed Emmanuel Moseley and Kindle Vildor, and have some other young players they like, so there's good competition developing there with nickel cornerback Brian Branch also returning.
Arnold certainly won't be afraid of competition. He's eager to get to work and prove moving up in the draft to get him was the best decision Holmes could have made.
