Rookie fifth-round pick [Keith Abney II](https://www.detroitlions.com/team/players-roster/keith-abney-ii/) has played just 25 snaps on defense the first four games of the season as he works his way into the defensive back rotation at cornerback and safety.
His name was mentioned twice this week by coaches. Head coach Dan Campbell mentioned Abney on Wednesday when talking about potential personnel shakeups on defense for Week 5 against Arizona.
"Yeah, I think Abney will probably help us out a little bit more here this week," Campbell said.
It came up again Thursday during defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard's weekly press conference.
"I think I mentioned this to y'all at some point during training camp that he was one of the smartest rookies I had ever been around," Sheppard said of Abney.
"During training camp and really the offseason, we started to see a player that could grasp the system really fast and play at multiple spots. But we didn't want to put too much on him. So, we waited to training camp and we saw this kind of Swiss Army Knife."
Abney, a fifth-round pick by Detroit in the 2026 NFL Draft, played almost exclusively press-man outside cornerback at Arizona State. The Lions saw the football IQ and physicality to move inside to the nickel, and he played almost exclusively there in training camp. Over the past few weeks, he's worked a lot at safety, which gives Sheppard some position flexibility.
"We saw a player we thought we could flex inside at the nickel, and he's shown that," Sheppard said. "But also, we thought a player that could flex some at the safety spot and kind of be this three-position kind of player at the game."