Cornerback Deshea Townsend did not intercept a pass in the NFL until his 60th game, when he picked off Cleveland Browns quarterback Tim Couch twice in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 28-7 victory on Jan. 6, 2002.
The former Alabama standout went on to intercept 19 more passes in regular-season play and get two in the playoffs. He’s seventh on the Crimson Tide’s NFL interceptions list.
Now the defensive-backs coach of the Detroit Lions, Townsend works with another former Alabama cornerback, Terrion Arnold, a first-round draft choice who did not have an interception as an NFL rookie in 2024.
“You know how it is,” Townsend said. “Once you touch it one time, they come in bunches. But when you play man a lot, a lot of times your back is turned. So therefore, a lot of times, you’re not looking at the man, you’re trying to go from transition from man to ball, which a lot of times doesn’t go in your favor.
“But I just think for him, it’s just that growth, being patient, that they’ll come. And when they come, you got to create them other ways. But when they come, they’ll come in bunches.”
Only three NFL rookies played more defensive snaps than Arnold’s total of 948 last season. Opposing quarterbacks threw to receivers covered by Arnold 90 times, tied for the 14th-most in 2024, and completed 50 passes for 660 yards and four touchdowns. He incurred 11 accepted penalties – seven for pass interference, three for holding and one for facemask.
“Anytime you get a chance to have as many reps as he had, it helps you,” Townsend said. “The only way you can get better is to get a chance to rep. And he understands how they’re attacking him, and he found out about himself. Like, what do I do best? How can I make those strengths more stronger? And then my weaknesses, what do I do now this offseason to make them better?
“And just conversating throughout the process before he got back, and then he grabbed me right now, we was in the office watching tape just now, so he is trying to be the best player he can be, and that’s what it takes. You have to work on your craft. You have to find out how you can get better in the offseason, and he’s working on it.”
Townsend said he and Arnold had targeted areas for improvement to focus on during offseason work.
“I think the biggest thing for me is tracking and locating the ball,” Townsend said. “I think as the season went, you saw some of the pass interferences go down. But our next step is: How can we get the ball back to the offense? How can we transition from man to ball, from it being a PBU to an interception? And so that’s some of the things that we talked about and some of the things that we’re working on to see how we can improve it. Like, when do I take a peek? When I’m in phase, go ahead and look, those type of things that now he understands and he can play a little bit more -- have a little bit more freedom and go take a chance to go make some plays.”
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OURNFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.