Lions general manager Brad Holmes made it clear last week he wasn’t done adding to his defensive roster depth in the secondary.
Soon after, the team agreed to a one-year contract with veteran Corn Elder, who played primarily as a nickel corner for Carolina last season. Now the Lions have added another veteran cornerback in Quinton Dunbar, who made a free-agent visit to Detroit on Monday and agreed to a one-year deal with the Lions, according to his agent.
Dunbar, 28, is a seventh-year pro who has been a fulltime starter in recent years, though injuries limited him to just 24 games over the last three seasons. An undrafted free agent receiver out of Florida in 2015, Dunbar made the switch to cornerback early in his career with Washington, where new Lions secondary coach Aubrey Pleasant was on the staff. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Dunbar led Washington with a career-high four interceptions in 2019, one of those coming in a win over the Lions, before spending last season with Seattle after the Seahawks traded a fifth-round pick for him.
Dunbar played in six games with the Seahawks before being sidelined by a knee injury in Week 9 that ultimately required surgery. He also spent time on the NFL’s exempt list last spring after he was arrested with former Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker following an alleged armed robbery in Florida. Those charges were eventually dropped against both players.
In Detroit, Dunbar adds insurance at outside corner, where the Lions had only three others under contract in Jeff Okudah, Amani Oruwariye and Mike Ford.
“The corner position — and I can say it with more than just the corner position — is a position that we’ll continue to address now throughout the entire process, up until the draft and even after the draft, if need be,” Holmes said early last week. “But it’s definitely a position that is not gonna be overlooked or ignored. It is a young group that we have now. I really like the group that we have, in terms of the youth and the upside. …But that is a position that we’ll continue to look to address now and through the draft.”
The Lions also hosted safety Will Parks for a free-agent visit Monday. The sixth-year pro has started 18 games over a five-year career spent mostly with the Denver Broncos. He signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal to play in Philadelphia prior to last season, but after being limited by a hamstring injury, he finished the year back in Denver following his release by the Eagles in early December.
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