Getty Detroit Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs delivered a message to the rest of the NFL on June 27.
Detroit Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs will be staring down Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in next year’s NFL season opener, but Jacobs says he’s not afraid.
In fact, the 25-year-old said he’s ready to shock the world against the defending NFL champions.
The Lions drew the assignment of facing the Chiefs in the season’s Thursday Night Football opener, a tall task for a Detroit team that managed its best season in years but still fell short of the playoffs in 2022. But the third-year cornerback believes the Lions are ready for the challenge and can use the nationally televised game to put the rest of the league on notice.
Lions Ready to ‘Shock the World’
In an appearance on Sirius XM’s NFL Rewind, Jacobs said he believes the NFL schedule makers set up the season’s opening game to give the Chiefs an easy win. He’s determined not to let that happen.
“It’s time to show what Detroit is made of,” Jacobs said, via SI.com’s All Lions. “When we knew we were playing them in the season opener, Dan Campbell came in and said, ‘They want us to lose, so what are we going to do?’ … We almost went to the playoffs and they just won the Super Bowl, so they’re trying to see if we’re really like that.”
Lions corner Jerry Jacobs says he’s ready to “shock the world” in the team’s opening game against the #Chiefs
Jacobs says the Lions are ready to show the world that they certainly are ready for the big stage.
“We’re ready, I know we’re ready,” he said. “Every time I hear we’re playing the season opener against the Super Bowl team, we’re ready to go out there and play ball and shock the world.”
Jacobs will also be trying to build off a season where he started eight games, making 42 tackles with one sack and one interception.
‘Amazing’ Offseason for Lions
The Lions have already been earning plenty of buzz this offseason, becoming a popular pick to win the now Aaron Rodgers-less NFC North. General manager Brad Holmes put particular effort in building up a defense that finished near the bottom of the league last season, landing safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson in free agency and using a first-round draft pick on linebacker Jack Campbell.
Jacobs had plenty of praise for the team’s work in building up the roster.
“Man, this offseason was amazing,” Jacobs said. “How Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell came together as one, trying to get the free agent guys and try to make the team better, was great.”
Jacobs added that Detroit’s roster was close to putting it all together last year, and this offseason consisted of filling in some of the missing pieces.
“And I looked at this offseason as like they just trying to make the team better, you know, the key missing points that we needed from the last season to get us to the playoffs and things like that,” the cornerback said. “They’re just trying to add on pieces so we can be better than we were last year. So I felt like this offseason was amazing. We had a lot of key guys to our own, you know, on the team ourselves, ready to see how we go.”