Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | October 17, 2025

Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | October 17, 2025

How we doing? Great. Oh yeah, me too. Outstanding. Friday. It is Friday. There’s nothing like it, man. How have you uh how have you seen kickers adjust a little bit? We’re seeing now more of those kind of balls get into the end zone a little bit, kickers adapting, getting it by guys. That’s obviously a huge difference starting at the 20 yardd line. Have you noticed that too? Kickers maybe adjust a little bit? Uh, you know, I actually no, not so much. Um, I think some guys do better than others. I think the teams that can do it and figured out a way to do it are still doing it. Most the other teams are not so much. I think a lot of the other teams are starting to figure out that placement on that kick is if you can’t get the ball on the ground consistently and have it be like an irregular hop and something like that. I think people are finding out that the best thing you can do is place the ball. Uh yeah. So, have you enjoyed being part of like this new play like kind of a blank slate the game of football and attack it a number of different ways? if you enjoyed that part of it. Yeah, it’s a great question. Enjoy. Um, yeah, some parts of me absolutely love it and the challenge and there’s other parts of me that’s like, man, like it’s frustrating. It’s hard. Uh, it puts a lot of stress on me. Um, being honest with you, because it looks easy when to cover those kicks, but the difference in covering it well and covering it poorly is very thin. Um, I’ll give you an example. A couple weeks ago or maybe a week or two ago, um I was watching a game and okay, so team A kicks off and they run down the field and they have two guys hammer the returner at the 25 yd line. Just hammer the guy. The guy breaks the tackle, bounces off it, spins around, rolls out, he goes to the far 30. The special teams coach on the return team, he’s all fired up. Ah, and he’s like, “Man, we did great.” You know, the special teams coach on the kick cover team. He’s distraught, right? And the guy who really did a good job of coaching the play was the guy on the kick cover team. He had two free guys at the point of attack hammering the guy at the 25 yd line and he’s the one distraught. And the guy did a poor job. Had two unblocked players hammering their returner at the 25 yd line and he’s fired up because the ball’s on the far 30 right now. You know, it’s like just totally backwards. Um, so I would say there’s a lot of that to the play. It’s like, man, um it’s really a game of inches. I know some people are saying, well, there’s not that many huge returns. Um there’s a lot of fascinating numbers right now. Um not that I’m a numbers guy, uh but there’s like just under 800 returns for the season right now. A year ago, the whole season there’s like 900. So, we’re just 100. So, after this week, we’ll have more returns than a year ago. Um there’s fewer touchdown returns on the kick return side. There’s also fewer negative plays um like tackled deep down the field from the kickoff return side. So like both teams have kind of slowly taken some of the extremes out of it. Um but still there’s there’s a lot of there’s a there’s a lot of stress on the play. I think you know the big one is like at any given point you could give up a few yards on it and you know ball comes out to the 40. Well if that’s the end of the game and there’s 20 seconds left on the clock it’s a huge difference in the game. So anyway, you’re trying to make sure you do the best you can. I think we continue to evolve and learn. I feel like our guys the last couple weeks we’ve done a really good job on kick coverage. Um not the last game, but the I think the four games preceding that on kickoff return. We started with the ball outside the 31. I think the last three the 34 yd line was like real positive. Although we haven’t had those huge explosive plays. We I think the last whatever four weeks minus the last game been pretty good. So yeah, it’s interesting. It’s fun. It’s fun. I mean, the bottom line is it is fun because I was sitting in there. I mean, I’ve stayed up a lot at nights, woke up in the middle of the night a lot, uh, thinking about the play, come in early a lot, but, uh, I think we’re starting to slowly get a handle on it. I know you said you’re not a numbers guy, so I’m going to immediately come at you with some numbers. Um, Jack’s net punt average is down from the NFL record, which isn’t that surprising, but he’s had, I think, 14 punts inside the 20 and no touchbacks. rare ability. Yeah, I think uh I think we have 13 inside the 20s, which I think is second best in the league. So, yeah, I’m with you. The net’s not as high, but obviously that’s different. Uh he’s been doing a great job punting the ball situationally, which the irony of that would be when I first got here, you know, I said that was the thing you guys asked me what could he improve on the most, and I said situational punting. and he’s really come a long ways with that. Um, yeah, it’s difficult to do. It takes uh the whole team obviously starts with the snap. Uh, getting a good snap helps him, you know, be able to put the ball where he wants to. Hogan’s done a great job of helping him out. And then, uh, um, you know, having Gunners who can run down the field and get down there. Tesla in the Cincinnati game makes a great play and keeps that ball from going in the end zone. Um, some of it has a lot of it has to do with where the ball is on the field, the offense moving the ball and putting us in that towards the middle of the field area at least, you know, minus 40 or forward to that and that certainly helps a lot. Um, have a chance to put it down in there. It cuts down your net, but gives you a chance to pin them deep. Um, so yeah, I think there’s a lot to go into it, but certainly Fox done a great job. They missed the PAT last week. Did you guys, you know, some of that stuff for us to see, how were you guys on the rush? Did you impact that at all? Uh I don’t think we impacted that. Uh but I would say that I thought our rush was very very good. Uh in that game I think the fourth rep of the game we we had wheat came kind of darn near scot-free on the thing and uh we didn’t block it. The kicker did a good job getting lift on the ball and fairly good operation time, but had our best shot of it. I thought that was kind of our best uh game from a field goal block standpoint. Rushing is a little thing nobody really sees uh until you block one. But uh I thought they played well in that game. Uh I think he just missed the kick. He hit a little bit high on the ball, wrapped around the top of it, and went off to his left or right. This might be a better question for Jake, but can you explain the way he’s mastered the art of dropping those kickoffs between like the three yd line and the end zone in different conditions and different settings? It seems to have been pretty consistent all year long. Yeah, he’s really become uh much better at it, which was a thing, you know, I’ve challenged him with and talked to you guys about. Um, so I give him a lot of credit. He puts a lot of time and energy into it. It’s not easy. U, especially when you get outside and you’re dealing with different conditions and the wind’s blowing left to right and a little bit at you one way and then it’s right to left and a little bit with you the other way. Um, and the wind’s changing throughout the course of the game. You’re still trying to put the ball in the same spot. Um, I do think that like him and I talk about, I mean, this plays, you want much more from that position. You want a sniper, a guy who can place the ball exactly where you want it. You don’t want a guy spraying it around down there or a drive by shooter, you know what I mean? You want somebody who can place it right where you want it. Somebody has to do with the way the return teams align. Someone has to do with what your coverage scheme is and your plan going into that play. Um so it’s really important. I think like another thing people always say um Solomon said something about it to me before the meeting here uh is like kickoff return yards. Well kickoff return yards to me don’t matter. It’s obviously drive start. Um, and the further back you force the returner to start with the ball. I mean, since we’re in the math, do the math. If he starts at the goal line, we start at the 40 and we both go the same speed, we’re going to meet at the 20. Um, so he has a 20 yard return and we met at the 20 yardd line. All right. Uh, he starts at the 10 and we start at the 40 and we cut the distance in half. He has a 15 yard return, but they start at the 25. So his return yards way down, he didn’t do as well, but your drive start was five yards better. So ultimately, um you know, the I think the thing that’s important at the end of that play is drive start, not return yards. Um and the guy who can affect that the most is really the kicker. Um so even if they have a high number of return yards against us, if they start further back, that’s obviously better for our football team. You know, the the second return man play in that too, right? He can sort of get a running start to go block someone. I mean down on the from the return side, right? If you get your one returner waiting for it, the second guy Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I mean that’s a whole another element of the the play in terms of the kick is not only placement but what I the way I word it or phrase it would be if the kicker can affect the returner’s feet um is really important because I think well as we do the picture in our head uh if that returner’s rolling into the catch well then he’s maybe getting a little head start on the coverage unit or waiting for the guy to get caught and they’re stationary. Um so he’s got a running start. So now instead of that ball or us meeting at the 20, we meet at the 22 or the 23, you know, so you’re fighting for every inch. Well, if the kicker can affect that guy’s feet and he’s going backwards catching the ball or he’s going sideways catching the ball and we’re coming downhill at them, maybe we get them two yards further back, you know. Um, so yeah, it’s like this fine line. You’re fighting for yards here and there in little ways. You made a um late switch in that game. You you plugged in Dominic into kickoff return. doesn’t seem to match with kind of the body type you said you’re looking for in that position. What what went into that decision? Why do you maybe like him there? Is that something we can see more of going forward? Yeah, good question. It was a point in the game where we had seen a bunch of the other We had seen Craig return the ball a bunch. Um we’ve kind of been wanting to see Love it back there at some point. We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to do it. And at that point in the game, it’s like, hey, what the heck, man? If we can break one, put somebody else different back there, see what he can do. Um and that helps us kind of going forward, too. of like, you know, do we really want to go into a game and commit to putting him back there deep and playing with him there? Um, so it was a little bit more of trying to get an evaluation on a player in a certain situation in a game. Um, and I thought he did a nice job. I mean, honestly, I thought Craig did a nice job in the game. It wasn’t our best game from a return standpoint. Um, but I don’t think it was just him, you know, it was a combination of the blockers and it was a combination of the group that we played against. So, I thought, you know, both them and us did a good job in coverage going into that game and it was tough for both sides to return the ball going into that game or coming out of that game. That was a lot of math. Yeah, we don’t really like all the school stuff too much. Good afternoon. All right, so we’ll recap KC real briefly. Uh, and then cuz we like to move forward to Tampa Bay, big one Monday night. Uh, but just piggying back, obviously, we took a tough loss on the road to Kansas City. good football team. Um they did a lot of good things in that game. Uh but at the same time, we we failed to execute. Um simple things within our defense, especially early on in that game. That’s probably one of the more disappointing things leaving that Kansas City game. We always go into games week to week, no matter the opponent, saying, “Let’s make them beat us and let’s not go out and beat ourselves.” Especially when you play a team of that caliber, you can’t give them anything. and we did early in the game and then midpoint of the game coming out the second half. It was a couple things in the defense that shouldn’t have been missed that were missed. Um and then a lot of missed opportunities within that game from some of our better players. Uh and in those type games, you need those players to make some of those plays that they weren’t able to make. Uh but outside of that, just statistically, I thought we did a good job in the run game. We understood in that game that we was going to try to uh protect some of the guys on the outside and hold some more shell looks and do some different things coverage-wise. So, we put the hard hat on the front and those guys did that for the most part in the game. I think they were 3.9 per carry. And then I say the rest of the game, it felt like we were one off. And what I mean by that is you start to look at the red zone, uh I believe they were 46. We say we want to be 50% or less. So, we were one off there. Uh you look at third down, they were 40%. We want to hold teams under 35%. We were one off there. And a lot of those you look at, you make these excuses, a lot of narratives out there, penalties, things like that. What what we do is control what we can. And we had multiple opportunities in multiple of those situations to control those outcomes and make a different outcome. And our guys didn’t do that. Uh but all this stuff has been addressed. Uh and more importantly, the players have come back in the building very optimistic for this week. Uh looking forward to another great team, another great challenge on a big stage. Uh so I’m looking forward to the way we respond this week. I want to ask you about the the art of the sack fumble. Hutch has has three of them this year. What are the the teaching points? How much of a focus is that of him just in your eyes, you know, swatting at the ball instead of just wrapping the quarterback up? And yeah, it was not by accident is what I’ll say. Uh I mean, obviously everybody sees the big plays with Hutch, but if you really dissect our tape, it’s all over the tape now. Uh guys violently punching at the ball. Uh, it was an emphasis. We talked about it back during OTAAS that carried through. The momentum carried through in training camp. I told you guys, you go back to some of these when I stood before you in training camp. I told you when Spielman stopped me at the tea machine, the coffee machine, and said that’s that’s the most aggressive, violent attacking of the football I’ve seen in a practice. So, this stuff isn’t happening by accident. Um, it starts with the players taking ownership in it, understanding how it can change the outcome of the game, understanding with the nature of our of our offense and how explosive they are. You give our offense the ball on the plus 50, a lot of times that’s going to turn into seven points. So, it’s become an emphasis, but the players are making it happen, man. They’re going out and now it’s turned into a competitive thing. Uh, where everybody wants to be that guy showing up on the takeaway tape every week. Uh, and Hutch had one out. We had opportunity at a big play there. If Jack or Nowski could have found a way to come up with that one, that would have been our second takeover. Uh that would have been our second takeaway in that game. Is it just one more little follow up on that? You know, the one that he had right where he’s driving the tight end back and then he swats it with his right hand. Does he have a special knack for doing it? Is there something about just because he’s such a great pass rusher for? Uh it’s more importantly, not just that, it’s just we we went in this off season saying looking at it, you know, you get a sack by knocking the ball out the quarterback hand as well. Uh, but that’s a more impactful play. So now, like I said, it’s not only Hutch. That’s what kind of in the spotlight, but Hutch will tell you. Look at A Meek Robertson. He’s been doing it for two years, violently attacking the ball. Look at Jack. I mean, they just sent out a memo in the tape. I mean, the way that Jack is doing it, and I mean, it’s violent. It’s aggressive. And it’s the way we play. We won’t make excuses, and I hope it continues to show up, and I hope it upticks as we progress in the season. What do they say about what Jack’s doing? uh just the emphasis on punching at the ball. They want to make sure you’re punching the ball and not the player, whatever that means. I know we spoke about McNeel once he got into that practice window, you know, but what what’s realistic expectations for him in his first game, you know, from what would you like to see out of him in this first game? Uh well, the expectation or the standard because the expectation means nothing to me, but the standard that I expect the Lim to come back and play at is a high one. It’s one that he set for himself as a player. is not one that I’m putting on him or outsiders putting on him. I expect Lim to come in and show what he’s shown the last two weeks on the practice field. Uh like I said, it’s like he didn’t miss a beat. Now, obviously, you’re not taking hardcore doubles and true pounding and you know that live in game. You may find yourself in a eight kind of kind of a eight play sequence there that you can’t assimilate on the field. So, it’s all that stuff getting his legs back up under him. But I mean, I expect this player to play at a high level and more importantly help our defense in a tremendous way. With uh with the injuries you’ve had in the secondary, you’ve had to plug some guys in that just got here, guys like Mlette and and Trey Flowers. I’m curious with the safety situation that it is this week with Brian. um you know, potentially Kirby being down. Do you want to maybe focus more Rock on safety just because of the difficulty of communication and and some of those things that might be more difficult to plug a guy in off the street? No. No, absolutely not. Rock is playing at a good level in my opinion outside of corner and we don’t want to mess with that. Uh and then that’ll be disrespectful to the other guys that’s been working his tails off on this roster. uh the Thomas Harpers, uh Lawrence Strickland, the Eric Howlets of the world, all these guys that people probably never heard of. I tell these guys, it’s time to introduce yourself to not only the Detroit community, but the NFL community. Uh it’s a tremendous opportunity for these guys. It’s a tremendous opportunity. I mean, this could be your one shot. Like you talk about it all the time, these overnight stories and overnight uh kind of celebrities. It’s not overnight. It’s just that was the night that they got introduced to the world. Uh these guys have been working for this moment moment. Uh they’ve been waiting on this moment. Uh and again, I just try to remind these guys, it’s not pressure, but this could be your one moment that makes or breaks your NFL career that changes the trajectory of your family. Uh so go make the most of it. Have fun with it. And I mean, I honestly can’t wait to watch. Sherry Goff uh you know is I guess performing better against the Blitz than any quarterback right now. I mean how much do you feel like the defense that you guys present you know in practice during training camp has kind of helped him uh evolve you know against the blitz and well I know it’s helped him uh because not only him but Johnny Mo tells him he’s like coming out of training camp with you guys they feel like they’re prepared for anything. Uh and that’s a credit to not only myself but my staff like I said this isn’t my defense. This is our defense. It’s a lot of hands in the draw on this thing and we present a lot of different defense week to week. Uh, and that takes a staff, not just one person. Uh, but JG’s awesome, man. When I tell you he’s been in my office more than ever, I said, I guess when I was a linebacker coach, I was a nobody because you never came in my office. Uh, now he’s in my office every week. But to have a quarterback of his magnitude, one one of the best in the NFL, uh, and he’s playing like it, uh, just to have the relationship that I do with him is continue to build strongly. He gives me nuggets, things that he see because Dan makes sure we do competitive things still within the season, good on good. So, he’ll come back and be like, Shep, you shouldn’t, you know, or if the quarterback sees this, you need to be careful cuz they’ll get to this. just having a quarterback like that, that much detail, that much care to come up with the defensive coordinator every week. Just to drop whether that’s two minutes or 20 minutes, uh he’s done that with me um this whole season and it’s been beneficial. Uh and I think, you know, we’re very compatible. We kind of bounce things off each other and I do the same for them. So, it’s a great relationship. Have you seen him I guess like like you’ve thrown a pressure at him at one point and it worked and then like he process it and picks it up and then like again absolutely he he’s a I mean he’ll do it in play not not just learning from that play but he’s a guy that processes very fast in play. That’s something he’s gradually that I’ve seen him gradually grow in doing. Um and that guy’s operating at a high level the highest in the league in my opinion. I’m very fortunate as a coordinator to have him on the other side of the ball as the quarterback. You did say he was he was one of the first guys that texted you when you got named DC from the offensive side of the ball. How did that relationship first blossom between you guys when you were linebacker’s coach? He was the first year quarterback here. How did that friendship relationship start? Oh, just I mean just throughout I think real guys respect other real guys. Like at the end of the day, you watch not what nobody says, but you watch our PE people work and you respect it in this game. This is a tough business that we’re in uh that we that we’ve all signed up for and very fortunate to be a part of. Uh but you respect it uh because you do see people that do it another way. Uh right, wrong or indifferent. Um, and that’s pretty much as far as I take that real guys respect real guys. We have mutual respect for each other. And I think we want to see each other benefit and win because both of us will have mutual beneficiaries um, off of that. The uh, fourth time you’ve seen Baker since he got to Tampa, uh, three new OC’s in that time. Just how have you seen his play and that offense evolve over his three years there? Baker makes that offense go and it’s been that way no matter who the play caller has been over the last couple seasons. Uh ultimate competitor. This may like he’s everything that we’re a part of here. Like Tai Bose, they run a very similar ship over there down in Tampa. The reason they’ve been winners there since Todd has been there since Bruce was there. Uh because they run a real program, a real organization. Um and he’s the head of that snake. Uh and he does a tremendous job. I mean, he’s won in them four of these games where their record could be one and four, you know what I mean? And because they have him at quarterback, they’re five and one. Uh, so I tip my hat off to him. Uh, he’s a tough He’s a tough guy. He’s a tough guy to deal with because when it seems like it’s nothing there, he finds a way to pull his team through. Um, so he makes that thing go. The coordinators are smart because they don’t try to change much. They understand what works for him and they carry it over. There’s some nuances that change, you know, motionwise, schematically, but for the most part, it’s Baker show. Have you had a conversation with Brian Branch just and what’s the balance, I guess, of wanting to play with that fire, but maybe going about it differently and handling himself differently? Yeah, we’ve have we have conversations all the time. I’m missing my guy. I haven’t seen him this week. Uh, but no, man, let me tell you, listen, just I mean, he’s pretty much spoken for on the situation, so I’ll speak to the person and my relationship with him. Um I I believe it’s my job to be a mentor uh in that department to him because I have been in his shoes. Um at one point I was a kind of towing the line kind of player uh that played with that type of edge. Uh but I told him, man, you just have to understand you have 60 minutes to be able to do whatever you want to do to another man. uh and kind of leave it right there because outside of the field, I mean, the most soft-spoken guy you’ll ever meet, the most respectable guy you’ll ever meet. Uh so, but those 30 seconds in that spotlight could change how people view you and how people see you. So, just always remember that in this profession, in life, uh one wrong decision could now peg you as a person that you’re nowhere near to being. Uh so, I think he understands that more than anybody right now. uh and he’ll learn and grow from that situation. Just follow up on that. Did you um as you see the the turning point tweet um I know some of the social media stuff comes across your your your you know plate um just some of the language they used about branch and as it related to the suspension. Uh no I don’t think I’ve seen that. But I I think I back anything our players say. Uh we’re one family here. So I’ll let his teammates address anything that says social media wise and just know I stand with our players and our coaches. Chef, when you see a little bit of yourself and Brian and you get to teach him these lessons about that, who taught you those lessons when you were that emotional player? Oh, it’s a I mean, it’s a lengthy amount of people like just throughout my career when I got to college, everybody from the Dwayne Bose, the Alih High Smiths, throughout my playing career running into guys like Reggie Wayne and Robert Matthysse. Just those guys kind of seeing how one thing could kind of tick me off and kind of when I get there, it’s hard to pull me back. But them opening my eyes and understanding that for 20 seconds, you having that type temperament can really change a bigger picture thing for you. So just understanding that, learning and growing. Glad you guys are doing good. Going against top bowls. Kept me up late last night. No, we got our work cut out for us. Um Todd does a great job. You know, obviously I worked with him before and uh it’s a blitz fest and uh you know, we got to be ready. So, and we will, but we’re looking forward to this game. How much did just the variety of blitzes that Shep threw at you all through training camp kind of prepare your guys for the variety of looks you’ll see this? Yeah, it does. Um it helps. Um, but you know, we got a veteran group and they’ve seen a lot. Jared’s seen a lot. Um, so when you got a veteran group and you’ve seen a lot of looks and you know, we’re practicing against it. Um, and actually we’ve been pretty good. Uh, Jared’s been awesome this year. Um, you know, RC recognizing things and protection wise, he’s more involved with all that. Uh, so we feel really good where we’re at right now as far as the game plan. John, not only are they a veteran group, but they also seem to come with this, for lack of a better term, chip on their shoulder type passion. I mean, they haven’t lost back-to-back games since 22. What do you see from them this week and just coming off that loss, especially because the offense kind of let them down and they know they can be better? Yeah, you’re you’re exactly right what you just said. Um, you know, we were the cause of a lot of things that happened in that in the Kansas City game and we had, you know, we didn’t take advantage of some of those opportunities. Uh, where normally we do. But listen, these guys don’t blink. It’s every day is the same to them, win or lose, same attitude. Um, that’s the way these guys have been brought up and it’s just awesome to see that. Um, nobody’s heads down or anything like that. U the way Dan coaches this team, the way we prepare these guys, just like you said, I mean, this veteran group, let’s just go. Let’s move on. We move on. We make the corrections and we move on. And that’s what we’ve done so far this year. So, when you say I was just going to follow when you say you were the cause of a lot of things, what are you referring to? What plays in particular you kind of want back or No, I mean, you know, obviously the the touchdown that was not a touchdown. Um and that starts there. And then um you know the fourth and two call that was that was a big that was a big miss right there. That could have you know we could have we were feeling pretty good right there. So that hurt right there. Um it wasn’t particular just calls. It was ah we didn’t execute you know. So the trick the touchdown on the goal line. What would you do different? How would you coach it different? Well, he’s got to be a yard back, so that’s the rule. So, you know, Dan’s already talked about that, so I’m not talking about that. Just to go back to golf for a second, how much easier does it make your job to have a quarterback with the temperament that he has? A lot. I mean, I mean, he’s the CEO of this place, you know? So, uh, when you got a veteran guy like that, I mean, we’re always talking, hey, I want this, I want that, or I I like to have this. It’s awesome, you know what I mean? It’s when you have that dialogue with the quarterback, it just makes it so much easier, you know, for me and everybody cuz everybody sees the how much confidence he has to do things and it’s it’s paid off for us. So, yeah, it’s big time. Hey, John, go ahead. I was say J does J get enough credit for for how tough he is. I mean Johnny’s not a big guy, you know, but you see what he does in the run game, bouncing off tacklers. He just isn’t afraid. How much do you love that about him? Does he get enough credit? Well, I would think so. I mean, you put our tape on like I, you know, all the white outs, but he’s like a kamicazi man going in there, you know, like bam, you bounces off guys, but receivers his size, they don’t go do that. He’s He’s tough, man. I mean, we’re not going to draft guys that are not tough. So, I I just I love what he’s doing. It was good to see what he did last week, man. It was awesome. John, with Demo, just four carries last week, just two second half touches. Obviously, some of that was game flow, game script, but this week, just how committed are you guys to getting him involved and keeping him involved as the game unfolds? Listen, we always have a plan to try to get guys equal amount of balls. I mean, we didn’t have enough plays last week. I mean, we only had like seven or eight series and that’s what happens in the game as as the game goes. And just so happens it has had to be that way. It’s not like we’re not going in. You’re not getting this, you’re not getting that. So, every game’s different. I’ve told you guys. So, it might be Demo this time and it might be Gibbs the next time. So, there might be somebody else. That’s just the way it goes. Does that change the way you might approach this week’s game though, just to make an effort to keep him engaged, involved, and having the ball in his hands? I can’t give you that answer. Like I said, every game changes. As a game goes, it changes the eb and flow of the game or we want this, we want that. It’s just the way it goes. You know, our guys are unselfish and that’s the beauty of it. There’s not a lot of pressure for that to get that done. So, Montgomery yesterday said, “Coach BS will show you something for four straight weeks.” Say that again. Uh, Coach McGomery talking about Todd BS yesterday said he’ll show you something four straight weeks and you’ll be expecting that. That changes it up completely. When when a defensive coach can do that, when they can kind of flip their their tendencies, their trends at the the drop of a hat, how much more difficult does that make your job? Is there something you focus in on core principle-wise that that helps you maybe plan for the unexpected? Oh, yeah. I mean, well, you got a lot of tape to watch. Um, I always say, um, if I could start all over being a coach, I’d probably be a defensive coach so I can just dial up anything I want at any time cuz that’s basically what he’s doing. Um, listen, we have to prepare for everything protection wise. That’s the biggest thing. So, you give them all the looks that you can give, especially the things that they’re doing this year. You’ve already played them three times. cuz you go back there, you look at those games, you know, you look at games uh other teams that are kind of similar to us, you know, similar to the quarterback and you kind of look at, but you look at everything. I mean, listen, Hank does a great job of putting the protection plan together. Uh he’s awesome. He’s he’s the best I’ve ever seen how he breaks it down. It’s pretty cool. Um and I think he’s done a great job. And then the quarterback’s there, he’s on it. You have our protection meetings. They’re all on it with the backs. It’s a cool thing, but man, it’s like I mean, watch it. It’s like 80% blitz, so you just got to go. You know, sometimes you just got to throw hot. You got to have quick answers. Um, but the biggest thing is, you know, we try to make sure he’s protected, man. Cuz when he’s protected, he’s deadly. Um, and our guys know, hey, we got to get the ball, get the ball in their hands. It might, if it’s third and long, we might have to throw something quick, you know what I mean? and so we can get the ball and they get the first down because we’re pretty good after the catch. This might tie into exactly that. I mean, the answer might be in his blitzes, but like Aman RA has had, I don’t know, average 15 targets or something the last three meetings. I think he had 18 last year. So, why is he such a, you know, force against, you know, this team? Why is he good? He’s a pretty good player. He’s pretty good. Is there something about what they do that lends him to be that, you know, targeted to the blitzes, right? Jared getting involved in his hand quick. Something else that um no um I mean listen you put a third down plan together. I mean you got to have a plan for you know Saint okay they might do this they might do that. Kayla Leaport you know those two guys have been stepping up big time. Someone else is going to have to step up and uh you know we’ll be ready for that. We’re always the contingency plan or they try to take Sane away and now you got Leaporta. All right. Now J Mo, now you got Leaf, you know, you got the back, Gibbs, all those guys, man. That’s that’s a lot of weapons. Um, so that’s why he pressures to see if he can get home. So, uh, we can’t protect or we can’t get open. So, you guys, Speaking of Jared, I mean, he’s the best performing quarterback against the Blitz. Um I asked Kel I asked uh Kelvin you know chef about you know the idea that he’s being conditioned I guess in practice maybe to face that but I mean how have you seen him evolve I guess in that aspect just being able well just the communic the RC if you guys you guys have already seen it uh this year um if he sees something we get to our our blitz check and he’s he’s listen he can see everything again he’s a veteran guy and he studies, man. This guy works his butt off. He’s like a coach, man. It’s really It’s really cool when you got a guy that, you know, the trigger. He’s like that. He’s like a coach. It makes it so much easier. And he’s seen a lot of ball. And uh that’s the reason he’s so, you know, he’s good. He’s not only good at the blitz, he’s good at everything right now to me. I mean, who throws 80 80% almost every game. That’s crazy. So, it’s it’s a tribute to him, you know. Taylor, you said you were uh said you were up late last night watching that defense. At what time did you ultimately turn it off? I don’t know, one or something. But yeah, but we’re all we’re all in here, man. It’s just you got it. You got to do it. You got to make sure you’re right. Make sure you’re you know, preparing for everything. But, you know, a guy like this, these guys that blitz a lot, you just you want to make sure you’re right. Return to practice this week. Taylor Decker returned to practice this week and we’ll see his status, but just what what kind of boost can that give you guys? Obviously guys been league 10 years against a team that blitz as much as they do. Gives me a little boost so I don’t have to slide over there a lot. Um and the quarterback, I mean, just everybody, you know, it’s good when you got your starters. Um it’s a good feeling, you know, um that you don’t have to go over there to that side and help out as much, you know, and get guys out, especially, you know, the backs and stuff or even just receivers and tight ends where, you know, sometimes they’re chipping and they don’t get out as fast, you know what I mean? So, when you got your tackles, your starting tackles, it makes it a lot easier. a uh personnel grouping that this offense has had is is the jumbo package that’s not necessarily a goal line or short yardage. You’ll you’ll throw an extra big man in at tight end in all kinds of situations. Uh Tristan Cologne has kind of emerged as as that guy in recent weeks. I’m I’m just curious what what do you look for from that sixth offensive lineman? What what skill set are you you know? Well, I think a guy that’s kind of done it. Um, so if a guy has done it, then it helps. Uh, the unknown is, okay, well, we don’t know. Let’s try this guy, you know, like Skip has done it. So, it’s good that they’ve done it. They feel comfortable with it being out there cuz especially if you go from a center or a guard and now you’re out here because you’re basically like a tackle. Um, so I think that’s the comfort zone of that player. Um, his ability to be able to do it. I think that’s where it goes, you know, where you decide who’s out there.

Hear from Detroit Lions coordinators Dave Fipp, Kelvin Sheppard and John Morton as they meet with the media on October 17, 2025 at Meijer Performance Center.

0:00 – 10:34: Dave Fipp
10:35 – 23:52: Kelvin Sheppard
23:54 – 36:02: John Morton

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