It's Now or Never For Detroit Lions To Trade For Joey Porter Jr.

The Detroit Lions are the team best suited to make a splash trade for Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

In the second half of the season-opener, the Lions' defense could not get off the field and gave up far too many explosive plays.

After 60 mins of action, the primary offseason concern about Dan Campbell's squad turned out to be quite valid.

In the final 30 minutes, after Detroit's defense started the game off strong, Saints quarterback Tyler Shough completed of 28 passes for 252 yards and two touchdowns. He added another 73 yards and a touchdown in the extra period.

Last year, the secondary allowed 58 passes that went for 20 or more yards. In the home-opener, they allowed six completions of that distance (fourth-most in NFL).

An eye-opening decision the coaching staff and front office has made is to start older players in the secondary. Despite being among the youngest teams in the league, the secondary is the second-oldest. The average age of the starters in the secondary is 29.6 years-old.

"I have all the confidence in the world in these guys, because we're actually going to be able to do things that we weren't able to do before," said defensive coordianator Kelvin Sheppard. "I'm starting to hear things that are kind of in the opposite realm, like what I'm not going to be able to do. No, let's talk about what I am going to be able to do now because of the guys that have been added to this roster and the veteran experience. And them understanding why it has to look a certain way pre-snap, why you have to rock in and out of certain things, why on this down and distance.

"Within the week, these guys spend a lot of time together," Sheppard added. "They're watching tape together, just players at each other's houses, I'm hearing. And just things like that just start to come when you really bring in guys, culture fit, guys with veteran experience. They've seen it, done it, a high level.”

Porter Jr. has ties to the Lions coaching staff. His father, linebacker Joey Porter, played in Pittsburgh with current Lions defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend and actually won a Super Bowl at Ford Field.

The talented defender can be a press-man corner that would give Sheppard's unit a boost by placing others in better positions to succeed. His ability to thrive on an island without safety help would allow Sheppard to continue to be aggressive and bring pressure from a variety of looks.

Detroit's defense is lacking a true boundary cornerback with enough size and speed to be able to neutralize or limit a player like Saints wideout Chris Olave.

Despite knowing he was the primary target for the Saints' offense, he was still able to record 10 receptions for 182 receiving yards.

“They get paid too. They did a good job changing things up and kind of counted our pressures and things like that. But we just wanted to keep fighting. We knew we had to finish it," Rock Ya-Sin said postgame. "We knew that our offense was playing well. We could score some points. We just wanted to finish it, man, finishing our defense.”

The 26-year-old is likely being coveted by several NFL teams. The asking price and pending contract extension could be difficult to navigate, but the reward could be well worth it, especially since the Lions lost Terrion Arnold unexpectedly.

For a team that has playoff aspirations and a clear weakness, it is time to go out and significantly upgrade a unit in need of reinforcements.

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