Deshea Townsend has played in 191 NFL games during the regular season. Only six former Alabama players have played more games.

Townsend, now the Detroit Lions’ defensive backs coach, will send another former Crimson Tide cornerback onto the field for his first NFL game on Sunday night.

Terrion Arnold was selected by the Lions at number 24 in the NFL Draft on April 25 and is on Detroit’s roster along with former Auburn star Carlton Davis as one of the starting cornerbacks for the season opener against the Los Angeles Rams.

Arnold said Townsend and defensive assistant Jim O’Neil had the playbook on defensive backs play that helped shape the Lions’ new secondary for the season.

“I give some credit to Deshea and JO,” Arnold said Friday. “They do a great job in our meetings. When we see a play, we have to communicate right away. And also we have this thing called the ‘Fine Book,’ so, I mean, it’s just about holding each other accountable. It’s just one of those things, like, if you screwed up on this play, hey, we’ll all bring it to your attention, and it just fits with our chemistry and it fits with us seeing different looks and things.

“And the most important thing they do is they allow us to go out there and play our game. I mean, they’ll coach us so we have the right alignment and technique. But at the end of the day, we brought you in for a reason and I’m not going to stop you from doing that, so they’re doing a good job.”

Arnold said his name made its way onto the leaderboard as he prepared for his first NFL season.

“He’s very, very strict about that,” Arnold said. “Just about slacking, which is behaviorally damaging. I mean, you can’t slack. And I got penalized for not hitting the ball. So, I mean, they do a very, very good job of just making it intense. And it kind of becomes muscle memory. Even in the game, if I see a ball on the ground and you just pick it up, it might be a fumble and you think it’s an incomplete pass. So I just try to replicate the muscle memory.”

The four best cornerbacks on Detroit’s roster are new to the team: Davis joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as part of a trade, Amik Robertson came on board as a free agent and Ennis Rakestraw Jr. was selected in the second round of the draft.

Brian Branch, one of the starting safeties, played primarily slot corner last season as a second-round rookie out of Alabama.

“He’s a playmaker,” Arnold said of Branch, “and he’s just one of those guys where you never really know what he’s going to do when he goes out there, but you know something exciting is going to happen. So, him being a safety, he has a chance to show his versatility and stay in the middle of the field.”

“But even if he runs full steam down the hill, it’s going to be pretty scary. I just know if I’m in the middle of that play, I’m probably going to back off. So, yeah, I’m going to let him make that tackle on his own.

“But it’s been fun just watching him as a safety because that shows his versatility and his ability to play. And then BB is a very intellectual player. I keep telling him, man, just trust yourself. You feel it happening, so just go out there and make the plays. I think people are going to see all of his skill and playmaking ability.”