Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | September 11, 2025

Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | September 11, 2025

you looked around around the league, anything you pulled from the way teams were handling kickoffs that that surprised you at all or was what you expected? Yeah, I think it’s kind of what we all knew. I mean, teams are going to force teams to return the ball as much as they possibly can. Uh, I don’t think you want to kick it to them at the 15 yd line. So, you’re seeing them kick it back there and flirt with the goal line. So, you see a handful of touchbacks, but certainly not many. Um, but yes, I think it’s pretty much what we expected. I think it is exciting. Um, I love the fact that the play’s playing out. It gives us a lot more um involved in the game, which is great. If it’s going to land in the end zone, do you want your guys to to let it go? And if it’s right near the end zone, does that put them in a tough position? Yeah, definitely. Uh, it’s a it’s definitely a good question because there’s definitely a decision- making component to that. And it’s, you know, this fine line as a coach, you know, you want your players to play smart um and make good decisions. Obviously, if the average drive starts at 29 1/2 yd line at the end of the play when it’s returned, then the 35 is way better than that. So, we’d like to take the touchback. The ball’s in there. But, you also don’t want your guys looking down at the line and all that. So, it takes a player who’s certainly aware. Our first kick return of the game against Green Bay was a little bit like that. We were like a yard deep, you know, and it’s one of those ones uh you don’t want to have hesitation in your players, so you tell them, “Hey, if you’re unsure, you know, you got to go.” Um, but if you clearly know you’re back in the end zone, then obviously I think everybody in the league saying take the touchback, unless it’s a situation in the game like Minnesota Bears last week where obviously you’re doing it for clock purposes or whatnot out to you maybe a positive and and a negative after watching the tape of of team. Yeah. Um, I mean I would say overall disappointed really. Um, there’s no way around that. um collectively as a team, as a group, individually, my performance, our players. Um definitely wasn’t what we wanted or expected going into the game. Um I think, uh you know, there’s a there’s a lot of things that we could all done better starting with myself. Positives, um you know, we had a nice coverage on the kickoff. Leaf had a decent return on one of them. Um although their net was still good, their their punter did a good job. negatives. We didn’t punt the ball well at all. Um, and we didn’t cover it well, but it really starts with the punt. It’s hard to cover bad punts. Um, we didn’t punt the ball very well. So, then it made it difficult to co to cover. And then, you know what I always tell players is or teams, I say the great teams take care of each other. When the offense isn’t playing great, the defense steps up. When defense not playing great, you know, maybe the special team steps up and the offense helps out. Um, on any given play, what happens to me is like the pawner doesn’t play great, but the coverage makes up for it. Or the coverage isn’t doing great and the punter ends up helping those guys out. I think great teams take care of each other and great players take care of each other. Coaches take care of the players, players take care of the coach or players make coaches look good, coaches help players look good. It all goes back and forth. And I think that’s the probably the critical thing with where we’re at now is just looking at oursel and saying, “Hey, all right, what can I do better?” Instead of saying, “Well, I got put in this spot.” I mean, we all got that and everybody could say that and we just go around the room and we’d end up saying like, “Well, it’s somebody else’s problem.” And and unfortunately, the truth is that’s a little bit of our society today. You know, everybody nobody likes to take accountability and blame. Um, and uh, the truth is the only way to move forward is to say, “Hey, man, I could do much better than that. I know I’m better than that, and I’m going to be a part of the solution and help fix the problem.” Um, and as soon as you get a group of guys that say that, you got a chance to really move forward and grow. Um, and then, not to make a long answer longer, but I think that really to me is the key in this league. I think the great teams get better and better and better and better throughout the course of the year and uh they play their best football down the stretch and these seasons are long and there’s a huge developmental process that goes on during the season. Um and so I think that’s kind of where we’re at now. You guys take that accountability this week? Oh yeah, no question. I mean, like I said, starting with me, you know, obviously I didn’t do good enough. I mean, I always say to the players, anytime the film doesn’t look like you want it to look, and I think if you’re worth a lick as a coach, then you’re saying, “Hey, man, that how can I fix that and help that? That is solely on me.” Um, and then the same token, if you’re the player, you need to sit there and look at the film and say, “Man, that’s on me.” Because I knew, you know, where I was supposed to be or how I was supposed to do it, and their guy ended up keeping me from getting that done. I need to better be better than him. Um, and I say this league comes down to two things. It comes down if you you got a double team, you got to dominate it. You got a single, you got to win the one-on- ones in this league, in this business. Um, and if you think, well, I’m blocked. You’re asking me to be blocked and also make a tackle. Yeah, you got to get off a block and make a play, you know, and that’s the National Football League. I ask you about the accountability element from from your end. I’m just curious when you say you need to be better. Is that the play calls within the game? Are you talking about the the game planning and prep? Is it the work that goes in before or the work during the I would say all the above. I mean, there’s so many ways that you could be better as a coach. Um, you know, whether it be how you word something in a meeting that could have a direct influence on what the guy envisions or pictures in his head or the clips that you use to demonstrate an example of what you’re talking about or something you’re trying to accomplish or achieve, what image that portrays to that guy. Maybe it portrays one image to one guy and a different one to another. And so you got two guys that are on slightly different pages. Um whether that be the drills in practice that we do and does the drill really show up in the game. Is it good enough job of simulating it or did it teach a bad habit or something like that? Um yeah. I mean it’s just endless like and you know and that’s the great part of really this game. I mean that’s the thing that keeps you going as a coach or really makes it fun. Like if it were easy I mean it wouldn’t be any fun. Um, but the fact is this is just the greatest challenge ever. Um, and it it truly gives me energy and why I love coming to work because I like trying to fix problems and solve things and figure things out and uh see if we can get answers and make a group better and then better and better and um so really ultimately like right now this is incredible. There was a pretty consequential kickoff at the Monday night game with the Bears and Vikings. Just the Bears said they wanted to kick it out of bounds. I thought about outside and then you see Okonnell telling his guy to run it out of the back of the end zone just like what’s the margin of error and stuff like that when you’re trying to kick it out. How many things do you have to be prepared for? Kicking it out of bounds or out of the end zone is what they did. I mean it’s hard to kick the ball out of the back of the end zone. I’ll just say that period. I mean a year ago you saw a lot of guys kick touchbacks and a lot of those didn’t go out of the back of the end zone. Um and then obviously you know it depends on who your kicker is. like artists probably has a better chance than some to do that. Um, but I mean ultimately I think probably what happened is like the situation got on them. You know, they thought to do the best thing that they could in the moment. Didn’t work out. And that’s also what makes this game great, man. You got a a lot of after the fact, you know, like, oh, we should have done, should have done, should have done. Um, the challenge is when you’re in those moments, man, it’s hard to think of everything. But hockey back potentially at least this week. What does he um what do you like about him as a return man and what does he add to your special teams unit? Yeah, Vaky I mean he’s just a tremendous talent. I mean he’s super quick, he’s explosive, he’s powerful. Like he’s really like a lot of safety running back body types. I mean that’s what you want. You want a guy who’s 200 plusb who’s very strong, very quick, very physical, um athletic, so he can change direction. Um so he’s ends up being a very positive player both in coverage and return game. Um, so they have a versatile skill set. So that’s him. Um, obviously him returning the ball, he’s got the running back background. Um, and for him, he’s unique cuz he’s also got that defensive background, so it helps him in coverage. He played great for us a year ago. Um, so yeah, we’re obviously excited to get him back as soon as we can. Because we haven’t seen it too. We haven’t seen it too often. What was Jack’s reaction to a game where what didn’t go as planned? Yeah, I think you know, he’s done that sporadically throughout my time here to be honest with you. Yeah, I think he’s had some games that are not as good as others for sure. Um, and the one great thing about him is, man, he just can’t wait to get to the first practice, you know, like those two days off after the game probably drive him nuts. Um, but, uh, he’s a very competitive guy. Obviously, he’s a great player. Um, and you know, that happens to a lot of these guys. They have ups and downs. Um, sometimes when you punt the ball, like I say, sometimes you either want to be really bad or you want to be really good. Um, and what I mean by that is obviously we take really good, but really bad would be like, man, it was so bad it went 30 yards, bounced on the ground, and rolled for another 20, and nobody in the fans really knew or said much about it cuz the end result ended up being good. Um, and that happens a lot in this league more often than people realize. Um we were just like in between bats. So it was like 45 yards down the field with 4 seconds of hang time right to the returner, you know, and that’s like the worst possible thing you could have. Um so anyway, we kind of had one of those days and uh we got to be better, but I got no worries about him bouncing back. Y there was obviously a negative reaction obviously to you know the performance overall. I mean, do you feel like based on what you guys have done, you’ve been here the through the whole rise, you deserve the benefit of the doubt to kind of get this thing in in order? I mean, like it and you know Yeah. No, the the the best the very very best thing about this whole business is uh it’s like totally the opposite of what you think happens in life. You work your tail off, you start moving up the ladder, you get better and better at your job, your profession. Um things get easier. you’re a teacher and you develop your lesson plan and then you’re like, “Man, that’s it. I got it. It’s locked in place.” And so, as you get older, your job gets easier. And the better you get at it, really, the easier things get. In this in this business, in this league, it’s the total opposite. Everything just gets harder. Um, the better you play, the harder it gets. The better uh the more creative you are, the harder it gets. See what happens to us is people around the league, their general managers are talking to their head coach, why don’t you guys do this more? Why don’t you do that more? These guys got players that are tough and gritty and other players are hearing that. The Detroit Lions, everyone gets sick of that and it builds up energy, motivation. So, you just put a bigger and bigger target on your back and your job gets harder and harder and the expectations go up and uh it’s just tougher to match them. And then they take, you know, the draft order and they put you last. And so that gets harder and everything does it. Um, and it’s what makes this game great. You know, when you’re playing well and you’re a good football team, it’s just going to get harder. And what you’ve done in the past means absolutely nothing other than the fact that it just made today harder than yesterday. Just want to talk about one good play that you guys had that was negated by the the penalty on Craig. Um, what’s kind of the teaching point when someone jumps off sides and you want to react to get that penalty, but it can’t be too late or they’ll call it on you. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess there’s a combination being too late and then technically he’s too far off the ball. So, I think the best way to or easiest way to look at it would be like if you were the quarterback in shotgun and the guy moved in front of you as the quarterback, you can’t move when he moves. And so, the depth of our alignment, put him in a position where he’s not able to move. like had he been a wing like a tight end or a wing on an offensive play and he’s a yard off the ball and the guy across from him moved it would be legal for him to do that. Um so unfortunately it was just a weird circumstance and we got hit with it. He was trying to do what really in a lot of ways we teach just from a position that um that is not able to respond that way and that that’s on me. So yeah good. Uh I just want to open up with starting with obviously addressing week one uh against Green Bay. Um obviously we left Lambo uh with a loss uh on the wrong side of the day there, but I really want to dive into the game real briefly and just put everything out there as far as how I saw it. So coming off the field, you guys know ultra competitive nature of the game. my temperament and things. I was pissed, you know, and I’m ready to scald everybody, but then you sit back and look at it and after the second time and after the third time, you go, there’s a lot of good football on this tape. Uh, we played 47 snaps defensively. Uh, and they had 188 passing yards, 78 rushing. So, if you look at an NFL game and you tell me the Green Bay Packers are going to have 188 passing yards and 78 rushing, did did you play a winning brand of football? I would tell you yes. But then you have to look deeper into that. So, what happened? Why did we give up 27 points? Um, and it’s a lot of things that go into that, a lot of different variables that go into that, but let’s start with the pass game. 188 yards. Well, I believe it was play 181 19 of the game. We had back-to-back plays where we allowed a 48 yard explosive pass and a 17 yardd explosive touchdown pass that we went into the game saying you got to make these guys beat us. You cannot you cannot give them things cuz that’s when they thrive. You have to make them beat us. And we did not do that on backto-back plays. Inexcusable and that’s been addressed. So you take what is that 4817? I’m not a math major but I believe that’s 65 yards. You take that off a 180, you’re looking at 120 yards passing on the day. Let’s go into the run game. We held him to 3.1 rushing. That’s a good day in the NFL against a back like that. It’s a good day. But we should have been dominant in the run game. We should have been at 2.2. Why do I say that? Because one of those was a 15yd explosive run. That should have never happened. That’s been addressed as well. So when you go in today, it’s a lot of good to take for it. for 47 plays. I just gave you three. Were you 2.2 in the run game and 120 yards passing? That’s who we are and that’s who I expect us to be and that’s who we will be. And it’s non-negotiable. And all this stuff has been addressed with the people it need to be addressed with. And more importantly, the players are holding each other accountable. And in the NFL, that’s why each practice, each rep you get, each opportunity you get on that grass is so critical and important because you never know which one is going to be the one. You never know. You can’t leave the game playing this game of we played good defense on 40 snaps, but seven snaps. We’re not doing that this year. You’re going to pull your weight. I’mma pull my weight. The staff’s going to pull their weight. And we’re moving on to Chicago. and I’m looking for us to play up to the standard that we’re capable of playing up to. Any questions? You thing that jumped out was just the no sacks, two quarterback hits. I don’t think any guy had more than one total pressure together. Would just shut that part of of the operation. What was your thought? Was it something that Green Bay was just doing a good job on a quick sets and stuff like that, but it with the pass rush specifically, what was your observation? They were nudging, chipping all day and getting the ball out. They they weren’t going to allow it. Go back with your stopwatch and turn on the past plays. They weren’t going to allow it. But more importantly, I thought I want to give credit to our guys of not letting this guy out of the pocket. That’s things that we’ve struggled with in years past. Droy Love has burned us in years past with his legs. He had one run, I think, for four yards. So, so I, so I want to look at the positives in that. Yeah, we could have done things and things like that, but we had a specific game plan and for the most part, the guys went out and executed the game plan and I just gave you the stats. That should have been a dominant outing on Sunday and it will be moving forward. Want to talk about those two the two-play drive um you know the two play scoring drive the 65 yards. Um looked like Kirby bit down on a an over route there. Is does he have he did exactly what he was supposed to do. So he has the ability to kind of add live. Kirby did exactly what he was supposed to do with the structure of the defense. And then on on the pick play, how how can Terion defend that better? By learning by previous mistakes. You guys been around here. We got the exact same play at San Francisco last year. Turn it on. Appear. Learn from your mistakes. You’re a professional. When the decision was injury when the decision was made to bring pressure from the linebackers, what was your assessment of Alex? Um Jack and Derek when you when you decided to bring blitzes and pressures from the line gave us the stats. What were those outstanding stats Tim? We got what? Two pressures. Got to be better. Got to be better. You get your number called got to be better. Point blank period. That’s also been addressed. Did How much did Terion’s the groin play into those two plays that he If you’re injured, come out the game. If you’re injured, come out the game. We’re not making any excuses. No, no, no. We’re not making any excuses. Just like if I have a play called I shouldn’t have called, that’s on me. A player has a job to do, that’s on them. We all earn our paycheck. There won’t be any free rides this year. We all come to the stadium with a job to do. Do your job. Point blank period. You um you mentioned good job keeping the quarterback in the pocket. Uh Caleb’s a different animal in that regard in terms of just his mobility uh squeezing through gaps and just the quick first step. How much more of an emphasis is that this week compared to week one? It’s a heightened emphasis if you watch the Monday night game. Not compared to week one or anything. Jordan Loves has scramble ability. But if you watch week one and you not only learn from your mistakes, but you learn from others. Those are the really smart people to me. People that learn from others mistakes. You know to me I hope it’s easy to learn from your own mistake. Shame on you. I mean, but when you start to really heighten your awareness in this league, in this sport, it’s when you turn on the film and see the previous opponent make a certain mistake, and you’re able to learn from that and make sure it doesn’t happen to you. So, Caleb was outstanding. He extended a lot of drives. He put points on the board. He gave his team opportunity to win last year via the his ability to escape the pocket and run. We’re very aware of that and we’ll have a plan for it. Ben’s greatest strength as a play caller. Excuse me. What is Ben’s greatest strength as a play caller? Everything. Next question. Chef, I’m curious. You mentioned that players have already started to hold themselves accountable for last week. Are you able to share any of what you’ve witnessed of that with us and how the players are holding them accountable and not giving accountability player to player, coach to player will stay between us and then no disrespect or anything like that, but I keep that stuff close to the vest because of the level of trust that we’ve built and the way we’ve able to look each other in the eye on Monday and shoot it straight. So, I would never disclose those conversations, but you guys see the game and we see the tape. I think it’s clear as day. And then I have to do things to help these guys more too. Everybody know we’re a man team. So how can I help these guys in those man situations in those man windows where we’ve shown we’re going to play man. Chef, you have talked about the importance of Ben to your development. You’d spend, you know, time in his office and he helped, you know, shape your understanding of offense and make you a better defensive coach. How much are you just looking forward to the the chess match that this this Sunday is going to be? I’m looking forward to seeing our players respond off of a loss. I could care less who’s calling the plays, who’s over there, what’s the scenario, what the media wants to make this out to be. We are coming off a loss, ladies and gentlemen. I’m looking forward to seeing not only our players, but our coaches respond coming off of a loss. We talked to Dan and Hutch yesterday, they said when we talked to Dan and Hutch yesterday, the emphasis was on winning the one-on- ones to free up Hutch, but Hutch said he probably only got two or three one-on- ones. Is there anything you can do to free him up more or how or is it just about winning those fleeting chances? If Hutch is occupying two or three people, there’s 11 other guys on there’s 10 other guys on the field. You know what I mean? I’m not going to sit here and give you guys my game plan. Uh, but Hutch is the caliber player that he is, and everybody in the league knows it. Turn on San Fran tape and tell me who’s one-on-one blocking Nick Bosa. Turn on Green Bay tape when you get a eight game sample size. who’s one-on-one blocking Micah Parson. When you’re the elite of the elite, people are going to plan for you. And that’s why he’s the caliber player that he is. We will counter that. And Hutch will counter that. He’s an ultraaware player. He knows how to manipulate things and move himself around. We’re working off a one game sample size, people in 47 plays at that. That’s not a huge sample size at all. There will be things that change, but I’m not going to overreact over the pressures. Like I said, 47 snaps. Take away those three plays. And you guys tell me, would y’all have liked that as Lions fans as a defensive performance, but you cannot play that game. You cannot take plays out. That’s why each play is that important and that critical that we detail and do your job each and every play. It’s not Chicago with Jeremy and Dave. Seems like one of those guys that maybe took advantage of some of those one-on- ones was Alcadine Muhammad. Only had seven snaps, but maybe a couple pressures in there. Just curious what you thought of his game. And maybe did he earn himself a little bit more of a role? It’s what I saw the last six weeks. It’s the reason he’s here. He earned himself a role in that game, but 47 plays, you know what I mean? 47 plays defensively. He did have a bigger role in the game. If we would have played the norm, the norm you’re somewhere around 60 65 snaps. He would have played 1520, but the way the game unfolded, it was what it was. We had those guys behind the sticks all day. The opening drive, it’s an emphasis, starting the game fast, going in the half and coming out the half, the momentum swings of football. We have to be great in those situations. Point blank, period. Second and long, third and long, second and long, third and long. That’s where we want to live and that’s where we kept them. We have to thrive in those situations. Just wanted to um close it with maybe a little bit more on the Bears first to Ben’s offense. How similar is it to how similar it to what he ran last year? I know it’s different personnel, but just conceptually I told the guys Oh, I didn’t mean to cut you off. You had more. Well, and then I just was curious about some of the personnel too, you know, like Yeah. Oh, no. I told the guys uh it’s going to be training camp practice, guys. It’s training camp. DA I know DA known him a while you know kind of AG came from that system. So it’s all it’s all the same. Not only offensively but defensively. You turn the tape on and look at it deeply. It’s a lot of the same. I told the guys this is training camp. Don’t go chasing ghost. Don’t go worrying about if he brings in eligible and he’s at receiver and listen we all understand and respect Ben Johnson as a person more importantly but also as a play caller. It’s why he got afforded opportunities he’s in. And we all understand this, but I clearly want to make this about the players. They’re the ones going to play. Ben will tell you the same thing. They’re the ones going to play and executing all these things we’re drawing up. So, I want to keep this about them and they just need to understand you got a one game sample size of Ben is a new play caller. Is that enough to oh, they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that? No, it’s not. So, go in. We’re going in with a tight wound plan where these guys understand we have adjustments. We have certain things we’re going to do and it’s about us and understanding that stuff and making sure as long as we go out and execute, not say, well, if you take out that play, you take out that play, we’ll play dominant. No, let’s put in all the plays and play a dominant brand of football like I believe we’re capable of doing as a defense. There just offensive skill talent. Some young guys there, you know, obviously, but highly talented offense. You you said talent wise, right? Yeah. Yeah. Highly talented, all over the place. My guy Swift, that’s my guy. Make no mistakes about it. For 60 Minutes Sunday, he won’t be. But that is my guy, man. I have the utmost respect for these players. DJ Moore, Aduz, Cole KT. I mean, these are real guys in this league across the board. He’s implemented things on the O line to help them, and that showed up. So, we know the task at hand. We’re going to have a tight wound plan, and we going to play Detroit Brand 2025 defensive football, guys. um to start off uh you know the last game um the best thing about that is it’s the first game of the season. Nobody’s in panic mode, you know what I mean? So, uh the players have been awesome, great attitudes. Um we have great preparation just like we did last week. The bottom line is just about execution and uh and the details of everything and then you know taking some you know a little bit less so guys are playing a little bit faster so everybody knows exactly what to do. Um but I’m encouraged there were some encouraging things in the game obviously. Um and then we move on and that’s what we’ve done that great attitude by the guys. Um how do we fix this? Because that’s we’re in the fix it business as coaches. So, um, Dan’s been awesome, players have been awesome. We had a good practice yesterday, and, uh, we’re moving on to, uh, Chicago. Couple players, explain some of the roots of maybe some of the communication problems you guys were having up front. Um, just how, you know, the blocking schemes maybe weren’t getting relayed or plays weren’t getting relayed properly. I’m not going to go into all of that. Um, but, uh, it’s it’s being addressed. It’s being fixed. you know, again, you know, taking some of these plays out where there’s not a lot of communication, you know, going on the road, we know, we didn’t do a lot of shifting and things like that. So, um, it’s going to be fixed. Is it just due to youth or how much of it was due to youth in your eyes and how much No, no, no, it wasn’t youth. Um, because there were some veteran guys that, uh, you know, weren’t making the right calls and everything. So, it’s addressed. it’s going to be fixed. On the uh attention to detail, you mentioned maybe simplifying things. Is there anything else that you can do to kind of help um the attention to detail? Listen, and when I say that, it wasn’t every play. It’s it’s uh look, we’re running plays that these guys have done. You know what I’m saying? Now, there’s some new guys in there, but the the bottom line is you got to go execute. And we didn’t do that every single play. We just didn’t. and we got behind the eight balls sometimes and then um you know you adjust you know just like we did you know this the second half we came out we started throwing a little bit and opening up and we started moving the ball. Um we got to do a better job obviously on on third down there uh cuz we were manageable on third down and uh did a good job on fourth down and but we got to go down there do a better job in the red zone and that’s that’s part of my job. So that’s been addressed specifically with the the ground game. John, obviously everything here centers around that. You know, 2.2 yards a carry is not where you want to be. So, um, when you when you say it’s correctable, what what’s your why is your confidence level rooted or where is it rooted in in getting those guys right? Yeah, because we’re doing plays that they’ve done. Now, there’s some young guys, right? Um, so we just got to make sure we give them the right looks, all the different type of right looks and to make sure they know exactly what they’re doing and that’s what we’ve done. You know, we did an extra period in the runs this this week and I think it’s going to help and go ahead. No, you go. I’m sorry. So, I think that’s what you got to do. Um, it’s an easy fix. It’s an easy fix. Again, they’re not in panic mode. All right. But 2.1, that ain’t gonna cut it. That ain’t gonna cut it. It should never happen. Um, so against that defense, too, you know, especially with the lead. Apologize about that, John. Uh, what jumped out on on Chicago’s tape when you put it on the first thing you were like, “Oh, boy. That’s something that we have to we have to prepare for.” Well, I know Dennis Allen. I’ve worked with him before a few times, so nothing I haven’t seen. Um, you know, they had some injuries. They had some key guys that were out. So, they’ll they’ll be different. I mean, listen, we’re going to be we’re preparing for everything. We know I know the way he is. Um, Dan knows the way he is. Dan, you know, obviously work with them. Um, they got some good players. They’re good defense and Dennis Allen does a great job. He does an awesome job. Um, he gets after it. Um, blitz package wise, especially on third down. They’re all disciplined. I know that. um they hustle. Um so the bottom line is just for us, you know, we just got to go execute. That’s all I’m worried about is our guys right now. And that’s we we put the emphasis on it the last few days and it’ll continue all the way. Um and then if they don’t like something, we take it out. It’s easy. So where do you see issues pop up in the red zone against the Packers? In the Packers? Yep. Can we move on from that game? Yeah, let’s move on. Dan had a really good explanation for for why Isaac didn’t see more snaps just being ill and only being there for third down day. That makes perfect sense. But um what what is your confidence level in in just his full understanding of the offense? He’s obviously a rookie coming into a big system. Where where do you feel like he’s at that at that? I think uh his catching ability is big time. You know, I’ve said that before, but he’s smart and he’s tough. Um I mean he didn’t have a lot of plays in the game but he came in and that was unbelievable catch. So his role will be expanded. Uh he will help us. You feel good about where he’s at though in terms of the knowledge of the whole system because you know he’s here the whole week. You know he was you know he was listening in last week. You know he only had one day. So he he’ll he’s going to be ready to go. You mentioned being encouraged by some things. What’s your biggest encouragement about what you guys have done? Well, I thought Jared played pretty well. I mean, going into that game, and I told I told the offense this, you’re going to be it’s a patience game against that type of defense. And I told you guys that before. I mean, the stat sheet should say almost 80%, which he was, and seven, eight players catching balls. It was a dink and dunk type of game. It’s hard to get explosive plays on that type of defense. So, you know, if the run game ain’t going, then it’s going to be one of those. and but we got like, you know, four explosive plays, you know, because we started seeing a little bit different looks. So, we have to take what the defense give us just like any other game. But that I thought I thought that was encouraging. Um, you know, the way we caught the ball and got up field, I like that. Um, you know, Gibby was involved. I mean, he there was a lot of checkdowns, just like I said, that’s just the way that game goes. But, uh, I was encouraged by that. I mean, his focus, everybody’s focus, um, especially the veteran guys, it was awesome. No panic mode, okay? And that’s what I love. We competed all the way to the end, you know? You know what I mean? Even though, you know, we weren’t in it, but they competed all the way to, we went down and scored. That’s encouraging. That’s what a good team should do. And similar to my question about Isaac, we don’t know what what Decker’s status is. You know, you want to give an injury report, great. But um yeah, that’s the head coach’s responsibility. Sure. Uh if if there’s a chance Decker doesn’t go, what is your your comfort level in Gio and what he showed in terms of growth through camp if you need him on Sunday? The good thing is, you know, when Decker was out there, he got a lot of reps, so that’s beneficial for him. So, you know, there’s things that we we know we have to do to help. But listen, he he did a really good job and uh we’ll be aware of that if that happens, but we’re totally expecting Decker to play. Okay. Is is Gio would he be next in line? You did sign a vet, too. He’s got a little more experience. I would think so. You got to ask Dan that. So, John, what’s the message to a player? What’s the message to a player like Tate Rage who obviously is hard on himself, wants to wants to have a good debut, but just didn’t. Yeah, you just take it game by game. So you learn you learn from you you you you learn from what you did in the game. All right. And you just move on. Okay. So it’s correctable and you just stay on top of the more he plays the better he’s going to get. Um you know he really got two rookie guards and uh I’m not worried about him cuz I liked what I saw in training camp. You know what I mean? So he I don’t think it’s going to be a problem with him with uh Isaac. Um, have you seen St. Brown kind of take him under his wing at all and just have you seen that relationship blossom a little bit? I think St. Brown’s unbelievable. He’s taken he’s the captain. Um, he makes this thing go, you know, with Jared. Those guys are just a and pane. Those three guys, their attitude just uplifts everybody. And every day they bring it and it’s just so awesome to see those guys. And uh I mentioned to you before, it’s it’s like Anquin Bolton. It’s the same type of guy, man. What do we got to do? You know, how do we do this? Okay. And he’s helping everybody. You know, Saint’s grown over the last few years since the last time I was here. He’s a captain and he should help everybody. And it’s all about whatever we got to do to win. That’s what I’m that’s what we’re all about. Whatever it takes. No egos here ever. And uh whatever it takes, man, let’s do it. How confident are you? How confident are you if you’re faced with the similar kind of defensive structure that you know Green Bay put that you guys can execute your game plan and and move it down the field and score? I mean I mean we went against our defense. It’s the same defense that we’re going against in Chicago. It’s the same type of defense. So no, I’m cuz we have great players. We have great players. So I’m that’s why I’m confident.

Hear from Detroit Lions coordinators John Morton, Kelvin Sheppard and Dave Fipp as they meet with the media on September 11, 2025 at Meijer Performance Center.

0:00 – 12:13: Dave Fipp
12:14 – 25:00: Kelvin Sheppard
25:01 – 35:01: John Morton

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