Lions' Jeff Okudah suffers season-ending Achilles injury

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Detroit Lions cornerback Jeff Okudah, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, suffered a season-ending Achilles injury during the team’s loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday afternoon.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell announced the injury on Monday.

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"I hate that for him," Campbell told reporters. "He put in a lot of hard work. He really improved a ton from spring till now. Look, I hate it for him first and I hate it for us as a team because he was really coming around. That’s one of those things that we’ve got to adapt to, and it is what it is and now we’ve got to move on."

Okudah was injured in the fourth quarter after a disappointing performance. Lions defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant was caught on video screaming at the former Ohio State product after he gave up a touchdown to 49ers wideout Deebo Samuel.

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Since entering the league, Okudah has dealt with injuries. He only played in nine games last season due to hamstring, shoulder, and groin injuries. However, Campbell is optimistic that Okudah will bounce back stronger next year.

"It’s tough. As somebody who was injured a lot as a player, I think it’s — the hardest thing is that you know you’re in the training room again," Campbell explained. "I think where you got to be careful of is that you don’t let it bring you down and you don’t let it ruin your day and you don’t let it — you don’t sulk about because, ultimately, it’s the hand your dealt, and what are you going to do?"

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Campbell continued: "You can either feel sorry about yourself and feel bad about and, ‘I put in all of this work.’ Well, you know what? His whole focus is what I’m going to tell him — I haven’t seen him yet, we’re going to talk this afternoon, I texted him last night, we talked — is about, ‘What are you going to do to prepare yourself for next year?’ That’s going to be my whole conversation with him is that, ‘Your sole focus has got to be on 2022 and how do I get back from this? We’ll have this surgery and then everything has got to be about the rehab again.’ Because there’s no other way to treat it. There’s no other way to react about it. That’s the only way he’s going to get better."