With Chris Houston and either Dre Bly or Jonathan Wade penciled in as the starting cornerbacks for the Detroit Lions, third-round cornerback Amari Spievey will be given every opportunity to earn a starting role this summer.

The 5-11, 195-pound Spievey (pronounced Spuh-vay) is a physical, ball-hawking corner, who totaled 142 tackles, 6 interceptions, and 20 total passes defensed during his two seasons as an All-Big Ten performer (second-team in '08, first-team in '09) at the University of Iowa.

To crack the starting lineup, Spievey will need to show that he's capable of playing man coverage this season, something he did not regularly do in Ames, writes Tom Kowalski of MLive.com.

Kowalski notes that a leg injury this off-season has Spievey behind his teammates, but the Lions won't have to worry about the rookie missing any of training camp due to a contract holdout. Spievey signed a three-year, $1.912 million dollar contract last week.