Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold said “my best ball is ahead of me,” but he won’t be able to show it until next season.

The Lions placed the former Alabama defensive back on injured reserve on Monday, and Arnold said shoulder surgery will keep him from playing for the rest of the 2025 season.

During his weekly “Closed on Sundays” podcast with Denver Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II on Wednesday, Arnold said he was “staying levelheaded.”

“I’m just looking forward to the road to recovery,” Arnold said. “It’s hard, but like how we talked about just as far as something you got to get through, another phase in life. I look at it as far as, man, it’s another challenge that God got for me. And I’m a go through that, man.”

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Lions coach Dan Campbell said Arnold aggravated an earlier injury during Detroit’s 31-24 loss on Thanksgiving, when the cornerback was limited to 18 defensive snaps.

“It’s been there,” Campbell said on Tuesday. “I mean, it’s not like it went away, and it bothered him in this game a little bit, so just felt like it was something needed to be done.”

Arnold sustained the shoulder injury in a 37-24 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 5. At that time, Campbell said Arnold was “going to be out for a long time.” But because of Detroit’s Week 8 open date, Arnold missed only two games before returning on Nov. 2 in a 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

But on Nov. 9, Arnold sustained a concussion in a 44-22 victory over the Washington Commanders. He missed two games again before returning on Thursday.

“It’s been frustrating, and I know it’s frustrating for him,” Campbell said. “I mean, it just feels like one of those years. I mean, I wouldn’t say there’s anything out of the norm. He got off to a really good start in camp, and then the bug hit him, and then it just kind of was one thing to another. It’s just one of those years. You know, it’s a tough year for him.”

A first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Arnold played 1,023 defensive snaps in 17 games as a rookie. In 2025, he played 313 snaps in eight games.

“When you finally get to playing good football, you start getting over the hump,” Arnold said, “like, even how we talked about like earlier in the season, just me, like, adjusting to myself, then this happens. So it’s just one of those things where I know my best ball is ahead of me, so just got to continue to keep chopping, continue to keep working.”