Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | October 30, 2025

Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | October 30, 2025

Morning. How we doing? That’s what I say to the players every morning. Morning. How we doing? You guys fired up, Brad. You’ve been doing this for a long time, but the challenges of coming back from a by-week, you know, what are some of the pros and cons of coming back off by? Yeah, it’s a great question actually. I think pros obviously guys had time off, get a little rest, recovery, uh feel fresh, healthy, uh a little bit of a new energy maybe possibly. I think uh things you got to watch out for, you know, and don’t take anything for granted. Assume you just come back in and it’s going to be easy or it’s going to be just like it was when you left. Um you got to get right back into it. You got to earn every play. Uh going against the opponent you’re going against, you know, you’re going to have to fight for every single thing, which is no different than any other week, but sometimes you forget those things. You don’t want to learn that in the first play or the second play. Uh so just making sure you’re prepared to go in and play on the attack from play one. I don’t know which uh which of your players comes the closest to matching your own energy. Uh I don’t know. Uh well, yeah. I mean, we got one guy with long hair and it’s always on fire. Uh but he’s bouncing off the walls usually. Grant Stewart. Uh that’d be my closest. Any in particular that you kind of uh focused on during the break? Any particular part of what was going on? Um no. You know, the one thing I think I said this a year ago, but I think the one thing about like buy and self scout and all that stuff, uh I think in general with the resources that we have nowadays, like I you’re really selfcouting yourself every single week. So I don’t think it’s like, okay, once we get to the buy, we’ll really dive down deep and look and see what we’re doing, how we’re doing it. Um so I think you’re kind of doing that as the season goes every single week, no matter what. Um, the most important I always say the most important team that we have to worry about is our own team. Uh, our players, our guys, our punt team, our kickoff team. Um, and if we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be in good shape. Now, that being said, you do have more time obviously to catch your breath a little bit, maybe look around the league a little bit closer. I mean, we always we kind of watch every play every single week from the whole league anyway, but you might have more time to sit and study, you know, what is that other team doing? I saw some things I kind of liked. What is there some ideas that they had that I really like or why were they doing it or um and then it gives you a chance to get ahead on some of your next opponents a little bit and make sure you’re prepared for them. Um but yeah, I don’t know. I mean I I think if you were saying like statistically um what could we do a little bit better? I would say punting the ball when it’s really out in the field. Um so we’ve been exceptional. the best we’ve been probably since I’ve been here with the ball around midfield. Um, but when we’ve been backed up, we could gain some more yards on our net punt. Um, that would probably be one area that I’d say we could improve a little bit on, but there’s a million things we can get better at. I know that. So, what jumped out when you you sat down and and started looking at Minnesota? You said you get a little bit deeper dive into into the opponent. What jumped out about? Yeah. Um, I think Minnesota, I mean, they always they do a nice job. They got guys who play hard. I know that they play with a lot of energy. They have a lot of active players. Um they’re playing pace number zero. A little bit more on special teams this year, a little bit less on defense. Um but they’ve always had active guys. Matelis, 44, now he’s playing more defense and less special teams. But um he’s always been an active player. They’re two gunners. Um Tavier Thomas, 37 and 13, the young wide out. I mean, these guys can flat run. Um so we got to do a good job slowing them down. uh their their punter can throw the ball. Um they’ve run some fakes. Uh we tried to run one against them a year ago. It didn’t work out. Um but yeah, I feel like this group’s uh always a competitive group. They always play with a lot of energy. Um now we’ve always kind of found a way to make some plays against them, too. Um so we’ll work on the same thing, but it’ll be a challenge. You guys haven’t run any fakes this year. Are you getting the itch? Is that Yeah, we haven’t. Yeah, I wouldn’t say we haven’t called them, but they haven’t come up or we haven’t run them. Um, yeah, we’ll see. Usually when you least expect us when it comes, but yeah, we we definitely work on it and we’ve spent a lot of time on it. We always have something available, but it just hadn’t come up. Whether it be situation to game, the look we wanted or teams are overly conscious about that with you guys now. Yeah, it’s definitely gotten harder. Um, you definitely see a lot more people around the box and some guys playing off with eyes inside and just a lot of different things. But yeah, I would say definitely it’s gotten harder, but theoretically it should help us punt the ball better, too. All signs point to Vaky being back this week. I think we all realize the impact he can have on special teams. Can you contextualize when you get like a really good special team back, how how much that, you know, helps the overall unit? Yeah, I think uh it’s critical. Um I think it’s really like probably on offense, you know, people say, “Well, if you have one good receiver, that’s great, but if you’re the offensive coordinator and you just have one receiver, it’s hard because he gets doubled. He gets, you know, all the attention. They’re putting everything on him.” Um and the more talent you have across the board, the more it takes off of everybody else also. So, it’s not only like, oh yeah, we get this guy back and he can make a lot of plays, but then he also takes some of the stress off of Grant Stewart or these other guys, you know, now it’s like they got more guys they got to worry about. You only have so many resources. You can’t double everybody. Um, so now somebody’s getting a one-on-one. Who’s getting that one-on-one and how do you match up against that guy? So, anytime you have uh I mean, it’s always better to have a lot of really good players um than just one great player. So, a lot of times the the hardest thing is one great player. Um, you just can’t do much with him and it’s hard for him to overcome everything that’s thrown his way. Um, so getting a guy like Vaky, Vaky’s a great player for us. Um, he came in, it was unfortunate we had him for like a game and then he’s back out and he made an impact in that game in the time he was in there. So, it’ll be good if we can get him back here. There’s a heat map going around uh on social media of where teams like to put the kickoff. There was like a heat map of where teams like to put the kick off. Yours was really concentrated like toward the goal line to Jake’s right. Is there any reason why you like to put it there specifically on that side? Yeah, I would say there’s probably different strategies for everything. Uh he probably hits his best ball there. Uh a lot of a lot of what we do I mean you got to build it around the players that you have. Um we don’t have as much speed as some teams have. We got a lot of size. Um, and so we got guys like Wheat and O Conor and some of these guys so we can put the ball down on top of those guys and you don’t really want to put those guys out in space, you know what I mean? Um, and then in terms of the kick to the right hand side, I’ve always felt like anytime you talk about special teams or certainly your coverage units, you’re talking about building it around your punter or your kicker. Um, and so you want those guys to do what they’re best at and then that gives the rest of the group a chance to play uh around them. Um, and there’s pluses and minuses to everything. You know, you kick the ball over there to the right all the time. Well, the weakness is they know where it’s going to be. The strength is you know where it’s going to be. Uh, your guys get a lot of time playing those plays and can get better at it. Um, so anyway, there’s I Yeah, I would say just kind of who we have and what we do best and kind of build around the players that we have playing for us. Um, but yeah, kickoff question. One more kickoff question for you. This kind of comes from my son. Want me to ask Jake Bates, but is the knuckle kickoff in his bag and how difficult is that? Yeah. So, I mean, I think you’ve seen less and less of it. Um, there’s a couple guys in the league who do it well. It’s kind of the same conversation we’ve had. Um, there’s a couple guys that I think can do it well and do it consistently and, um, it’s been very good for them obviously, but it’s also hurt some guys. They’ve tried to hit it. They hit it right to the returner. The returner center at the 10 12 yd line. um he’s coming downhill on the ball really fast. A lot of times on those knuckle kicks, is buying a little bit more time for the coverage group to get around or off the blocker. Um and when that happens, those guys now are starting to decide, hey, we can run around. Well, you run around blockers now all of a sudden the ball gets caught and it’s coming back downhill at you. You end up opening up gaps. Um so for us, it’s not it’s not something that Jake does great. Um, and right now, so anyways, for us right now, it’s not as much of an option. Um, and uh, yeah, I would say if it was something he did great, then obviously we would kind of play around that and start to structure our coverage unit around it. But yeah, it’s a good play if you can do it uh, and do really well. And you can make that bounce inconsistent. I think even those guys who are good at that are starting to see some of the returners push up on them and now you hit it to that guy who’s standing there short. It’s not a great play. So now even those guys are starting to now try to push the ball back over the top of their head so they have to run back and catch it. I think ultimately like we talked about it last time or I mentioned it, but any way you can affect the returner’s feet, whether that be a ball on the ground, whether that be him running sideways to catch it, whether that mean he’s going backwards to catch it, but any way where you can affect his feet and slow that catch start down, I think is beneficial. Nick has missed three field goals from 50 yards out this season. That’s more he’s missed all last season. Is there something that needs to be tweaked towards his approach or just kind of one of those things where just lucky go his way? No, I think obviously we’ve asked him to kick some harder kicks. You know, this goes back way for me uh to Philadelphia. I think I told you guys, but like Jake Bates wasn’t having a great or uh Jake Elliot wasn’t having a great year and uh statistically, you know, but it was like, yeah, we tried to kick a 58 y in Pittsburgh into the win at the end of the half with two seconds left. Well, yeah, it was a better option than throwing the Hail Mary, you know, it doesn’t mean he’s going to make it. You know, um we thought he had a chance. He didn’t. Um and then at the end of the year, they say, “Well, you know, he uh not doing very well.” But if I told you he’s 100% under whatever 50 something yards, you’d say, “Well, he’s doing pretty good.” So, it’s like statistics. Any way you want to slant the tables or the numbers you can to come up with the story that you want to tell. If you want to make it sound like he’s having a bad year, then look at all the, you know, just go on makes misses. You want to make it look like he’s having a good year, just go on what whatever he’s missed from inside of he’s hitting 100% and he’s having a great year. So, a lot of it’s what you ask that guy to do or the head coach asks that guy to do um in a game. And a lot of that’s just based off what you’re trying to do to win the game. And uh that can influence these guys’ numbers. And there’s not enough kicks for it to even out. And so for you to really see like, oh, he’s hitting the ball really well or not. Uh practice-wise, like the numbers that I have, I mean, he’s been exceptional. So, I feel really good about what what he’s doing, where he’s at. I have a lot of confidence in him. Um, but yeah, he hasn’t made all the long kicks that we would love for him to make. Can he hit that at a higher percentage? For sure. Will that be something to work on? Yeah, no doubt. Um, I do think that to a head coach, the most important thing is like when you’re sending your your kicker out there, you want to know like on a makeable kick that he’s going to make it. So that’s why to me like 48 yards and inside. So the ball gets to the 30 yardd line, we say field goal. We feel like we’re getting three points out of it. And I think that’s what a head coach wants is he wants dependability and to know that, hey man, this guy’s going to go out there, he’s going to make the kick. Now, if we ask him to do it from 58, yeah, there’s a chance he’s not going to make it. Um, but when I ask him to make those manageable kicks, he’s going to make those ones. And I think there’s more value in that than the guy that makes the 58 y but misses the 35, you know, it’s like, man, it’s frustrating um to a head coach cuz he thinks, hey, we had points on that drive. Um he feels good about the 58, but he’s devastated when 135 doesn’t go through. So anyway, long story short, hey, just before you, what’ your son ever say about you dropping 67? So my son 67, he loved it. Uh I could drop it so many times. It’s crazy now. I become uh I’ve become incredibly efficient. But uh but uh he actually speaking of my son I mean it’s the craziest thing I was telling these players this morning you know uh he just turned 16 um yesterday uh so one six not seven uh but but u he turned 16 and it’s great because you know I tell these players these guys got young kids and it’s hard to remember but for us like the thing that happened is you know you go from carpulling them or shuttle them around or you get them from place to place And you know, you’re driving him here, you’re driving him there, you’re picking him up late at night. Um, and you’re complaining about it, you know, cuz you’re like, “Ah, gosh, man. I got to Well, then all of a sudden, he turns 16, he drives, and now my wife, she’s like, well, I don’t get to drive anymore. I’m like, well, you know, you should have thought about that when you were complaining about it. So, it’s like these ironies in life, man. You can’t wait for them to crawl and then they crawl and you got to protect everything. You can’t wait for them to walk, then they can walk. And now, man, it’s get them out of that that we got to pick everything up. Can’t wait for them to drive, then they can drive. You worry about them driving. But the irony is of life. So, I say, man, just enjoy the moment because you’ll look back and I told the players, just enjoy being in this building cuz there’s some days, I’m sure, where you come in here and you’re like, ah, man, do it. You know, this is hard. It’s hard work. They’re going to ask me to do this, that, and the other thing. But don’t ever forget, man. You’re living it right now. Like, these are the days. And I said, “Those are these are the days for you, but these are the days for me, too. You know, I’m older, but man, this is there’s nothing like this being here uh getting to do what we do every single day. And the challenge is really to embrace every moment, whether the good and the bad and the ups and downs. Um, so anyway, that’s my lesson for you. All right. Afternoon or morning. What is this? Morning, I think. All right. Good morning. Uh, obviously it’s no game to recap. just coming off the by-week, took a little time, decompress, go back home with the fan, with the kids, and then outside of that, just took a kind of deep dive into us and who we’ve been through seven weeks. Uh, and in doing that, it’s a lot of what we all know. You know, I get up here each week, give you a synopsis of the prior week, but then it was some things that we kind of didn’t know uh schematically. Obviously, I’m not going to disclose that, but we found some things there where we leaned heavier in some areas where going into the year, we kind of didn’t want to and things like that. So, we’ve made changes to that already. And then statistically, uh I kind of looked at some areas that I believe we should be better and will be better at starting with the red zone. Um when you allow teams down there, it’s huge that you limit points in those situations. call them kind of the four-point plays as far as when teams are in that sevenpoint striking distance and you only give up a field goal. So, we definitely got an uptick there and then uh believe it or not on third and long and I know it probably has a lot to do with that Cincinnati play, but the third and 11 plus and things like that. we’re in the lower kind of bottom five of the league and uh obviously third down some having an experienced coach like Deay Townson he looked at that and kind of pointed to a couple things that we could do differently there as well to kind of make sure that we’re improving and kind of thriving when we get teams in that third and long situations. But outside of that, I like where we at as a defense right now going into the back half of the season. Um obviously we all want to be better and will be better. Uh, but I do want to credit the things that these guys have come out and done thus far through seven weeks. I know you prepare for every aspect of the coaching with this defensive coordinator job, but as you experience more and more success, you hear your name being rumored to other jobs and positions. How have you dealt with that or did you learn anything from seeing Aaron Glenn and Ben Johnson kind of going through that process but still saying focus on the task at hand while you going to continue to hear your name link to other other jobs just cuz you’ve been doing so well? Yep. and and not just learning from them but learning from my own life. Uh when you have success and failure that comes with certain changes. Um but always trying to kind of it’s kind of cliche but being where your feet are. Uh I’m very blessed and fortunate to hold the position that I do here as a defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. A winning soon to be championship organization. Uh and I don’t take that lightly. Uh this position comes with a lot and whether you’re in this position or you’re a QC or you’re a janitor, if you start to look out and stretch out looking for other things, uh you you will lose the things that you do hold on to currently. Um and I’ve seen that I’ve seen that happen to people. Uh I’ve seen it happen to players chasing contracts, chasing plays on the field instead of letting things come to you. uh when you put your head down. I didn’t get to this position by trying to be the defensive coordinator in Detroit. I got to this position by understanding what my role was within this organization. I got to this position by understanding you got to put your head down and go back to work whether you have success or failure. Uh so I’m going to remain to do that and whatever may lay out there for me, God willing, that’s going to happen. But that’s going to happen through success in my current position, not through anything else. Not by politicking for anything, not by trying to set headlines a certain way. By putting my head down and giving this organization the best version of myself, and that’s what I plan to continue to do. Kevin, I am wondering, have you kept up with what’s going on with LSU? And what does that school uh team in the SEC, what what do they kind of need in their next head coach? Obviously, I’ve kept up with them. That’s my alma mater. Uh, I keep up with them every year, every week. Uh, when you cut me open, I kind of tell people cuz this thing’s running right now. You cut me open, I’m not going to lie to you and say I’m all line. No, I’ve spent five years, well, six if you include the year coaching down there. Uh, that place molded me into the man that I that I’m that I am today and still becoming. Uh, you cut me open, I’m a liger. I think that’s what they call it. Half lion, half tiger. Uh but you know uh that school expects championships and they should. We hosted a trophy when I was there. They hosted one after I left there. The standard down there just like we’ve created the standard here through hard work, through what you put out there is championships. It’s not just being around. It’s not being competitive and it’s not winning. We should win. that that’s what we put ourselves in position to do over the course of time is championships and that school deserves that. That fan base deserves that and I know the people down there in place will make sure that happens moving forward. Just be be clear, are you interested in that job at all? Your name has been bandied about for the LSU job. I can’t be interested in something I have no idea about. So, you know, I’m interested in beating the Minnesota Vikings. Uh, I’m tasked with another Tiger this weekend, Justin Jefferson, since we on a Tiger conversation. Uh, and that’s a tall one. Uh, he’s one of the LSU greats. So, that’s what I’m interested in. I’m interested in seeing us come off this by-week and stop cutting ourselves shorted of the of the potential, I believe, who we could be as a defense and as a team. it’s time to make this final push. And it starts with us limiting points, putting our offense in certain situations to capitalize off us giving the ball back to them. So, it’s a lot of things you can get into and speculate about, but the truth of the matter is nobody has contacted me about anything, dealing with a job outside of anything I’m doing right now. And that’s the honest truth. Challenge with uh a quarterback like JJ McCarthy where there’s not a ton of tape, right? Two games, one of which he was hurt. It looks like he’s going to go this week. What have you seen on film from him? And what is that challenge when when the the film isn’t extensive? Well, I got the secret sauce. I got his uh college teammate Hutch that’s been tapping me on the shoulder saying, “I remember he used to do this and do that.” But no, seriously, uh ultra competitor uh a player like that doesn’t get drafted where he’s drafted without a reason. And I see the reason. You turn on that week one game um and they were getting styied in the first half. uh and they came out in the second half and in the way he put that team on his back, he put that offense on his back and you saw how the guys galvanized around him. So that told me something about him. Uh when you really go watch that game in a whole uh the way his teammates go up to him on the sideline and things like that. So there’s a belief in that player over there regardless of the time on task. He comes from a championship organization in college. He’s a winner. He’s used to winning and he poses a lot of different threats. He’s a physical quarterback. I don’t think he gets enough credit for that. Uh I believe he’s a tremendous running threat. Uh that’s something that we have to be prepared for. Uh and then he has the moxy. I see it. Um again, I’ll go back to the week one game where I watched it because you don’t watch where people are when they’re up high. You watch when they’re down low and got to crawl out of things. Uh and I watched him crawl out of that whole week one. So he garnered my respect. I think we all recognize Hutchinson’s different, not only in his ability to produce, but also maybe the endurance and the stamina. There aren’t many defensive linemen that can play 90 plus snaps or 90% plus snaps every week. But when when you do the evaluation, do you feel like you need to find a little bit more windows for him to breathe? And maybe with the way we kind of finish that game is maybe he offer maybe a little bit opportunity to give Hudson some breathers here and there. I want you to come down there and try to tell Hush to leave the field and and I want you to see how those interactions take place. No, but seriously, I mean, we just gave him half the building, so he needs to play 95%. Uh, but no, he’s a tremendous, tremendous athlete, superior athlete, and not by god-gifted talent. I’m talking about by hard work and dedication. And he’s conditioned his mind, his body to do that. And again, you you try to pull Hutch off the field and there’s there’s not going to and I want that. It’s not disrespectful. He’s never Why are y’all taking me out? It’s I want to be out there because that may be the one play that changes the that changes the outcome of the game. Uh but it is a time and place. It’s a long season. We plan on playing 20 21 games this year, however that shakes out. So, we do have to be kind of conscious of that. But at the same time, I mean, if he can handle it, why why take anything off of him if he’s handling it well? Deadline is next week. I’m just wondering from your perspective and your position, if a new player does come in, how how quickly do you think they could acclimate to what you got going on in your program? Uh, it depends on who the player is, the position of the player. Obviously, some positions are more complex than others. You try to plug and play a middle linebacker, that’s impossible to do in this system. Uh, where we’re at in the year and where we’re at schematically. Uh but obviously I mean those positions vary. You get a D lineman, you could plug and play them, tell them get off the ball and go. Uh but but I don’t see a need or necessity to go and reach for anything or anyone. Um I think that’s very disrespectful to talk about that with the guys that we’ve have and I feel like the respect that they’ve garnered by the work they’ve put in through seven weeks. Uh but I leave all that up to Brad. They do a tremendous job. Uh that’s what I have a luxury of doing here. I get the luxury of just being a defensive coordinator. I don’t have to try to be the GM. I don’t have to try to be the head coach. I don’t have to try to be the linebacker coach. Uh because I’m surrounded by ecosystem of elite guys in their kind of respective groups. So, I’m I’m able to just go up to my office and focus on calling the game on Sunday, Monday, Thursday night, whatever day that may be that week. Uh and I’m very thankful for that opportunity here. will rejoin me. Okay. So, we didn’t get to talk to you after the Bucks game, but just like how much pride do you take in guys like Howlet and Thomas Harper and Whiteside and Rock and Amique stepping up and just that makeshift secondary without four starters performing the way they did. The Legion of Whom they introduced themselves to the NFL. Uh I stood up here before y’all on that Thursday and told y’all uh it was an opportunity. It was an opportunity for those guys to introduce themselves to the NFL, to the world. And it’s nothing better to see than to when I click on my Instagram and I see a hundred articles talking about Nick Whiteside. Like that is unbelievable. Like a guy that was in the UFFL probably thought honestly because when you’re in those cleats like you, man, this is the end of the road for me. Oh, I get a practice squad spot. and they’re grateful for those moments, but those guys never see themselves lining up mono on emano on Ibuka. They never see themselves lining up mono on Mike Evans. That’s just real guys. And for him to not only get that opportunity, but make the most of it. Eric Howlet, Art Mallet, Tus week. I I mean the names go on and on of the guys that went out guys and not only just played, not only held the line, but they’ve put some pressure on some of our starters now. Like these guys came in and we probably played the best defensive game that we’ve played this year with a bunch of you call it no name, whatever. I know these guys name and I know who they are as people and I’m just glad that everybody else does now. Shut obviously draws so much attention from opposing offensive lineman, double team, sometimes triple teams. With a lean back out there and with what he put on tape against Tampa, how do you foresee that impacting the way that teams have to kind of confront your defensive front moving forward? First of all, it’s so good to have Mac back. I just I just saw him in the weight room yesterday working on his day off. like just we’re we’re we’re we’re we have such a luxury here to have all of these I don’t even call them superstars cuz superstars kind of the diva word gets attached to those players. I just call these guys highend players in this league because I know everybody see Hutch contract you wouldn’t know it today because if he has his pen out, notebook out taking notes. These guys are workers and hard workers and that starts at the top. Brad Holmes, Dan, Sheila, the type of people they bring in here. And then the player um aspect, Mac is exceptional. I know Hutch is glad to have him back, but more importantly, I’m glad to have him back. Uh because you try to double nudge Hutch and things like that. You’re leaving your guard one-on-one on one of if not the best three techs in in the uh in the NFL. And on that note with Brad, you know, you’ve played for and worked for multiple organizations and from your maybe DC bubble or pocket that you get to be in. What is it like for you to watch Holmes work and sign so many key players to this organization and just deal the way he does? Um, I think as a player just being in those locker rooms, it feels good to know that again, we talk about searching and reaching and trying to go. It feels good to know if I’m drafted here and I do what I need to do that I’m gonna be taken care of here and I don’t ever need to look, reach, or go wonder where do I stand. I think the the level of transparency throughout this entire organization is special. Uh in what we do, that’s not normal. Uh a lot of things are hidden from coaches, a lot of things are hidden from players. But here, all you got to do is take one trip upstairs. I mean, you got to be careful because you’re going to get told the truth, but you take one trip upstairs and the trickle to coaches is it’s easy to coach in that type of environment where you don’t have to wonder. You don’t have to guess. Uh he gives clarity to the coaches, he gives clarity to the players. Uh and that’s a very awesome thing. So, I’m very thankful to be a part of this organization. Tough opponent this week. Um preparing for Flores. Um he does a really good job. Um, so it’ll be a challenge this week, but our guys are going to be prepared and we’ll be ready, looking forward to it, getting back on the field after a little time off. Go ahead. Studying the roster a little bit. I talked to Jared Goff yesterday and he was talking about trying to get JO a little more involved. Like what what did you see? Is there any areas you can see or you self scout ways to possibly get him more involved this this this final stretch of the season? Um, I’m not going to let you know that, but yeah. Uh yeah, we I looked at everything as far as that. Um I’m going to do a better job with that, but there has been opportunities where it just didn’t happen. You know what I’m saying? It’s not like we ain’t going to try to target him. Um so that that’s that was the biggest thing. So I looked at everything and uh I definitely I I failed him. That’s what I told him. You know what I mean? I have to do a better job with that. But it’s a two-way street. You know what I’m saying? So, we were definitely looked at that. How’s he responded though as far as Listen, man. This guy, he’s awesome. He doesn’t say anything. He just goes and plays. Like I said, I don’t I wouldn’t fault you if you’re pissed at me. You know what I mean? And cuz I’ve I’ve coached that position. I’ve played that position, you know what I mean? And I know he works too hard. But, you know, we got to make sure that we’re going out and doing the right thing, the right techniques, and this and that. It’s not just him, it’s everybody. You know what I mean? John, when did you guys have that conversation? And just what was J Mo’s reaction to the things that you He was great. He was great. Don’t sweat it. You know what I mean? I’m like, listen, man. I want to do a better job. That’s my job during the bye-week, you know, cuz I stayed here and that was my job in third down to really study that and just create how do I get him open? You know what I’m saying? Because there’s a lot of especially on third down, they’re doubling Saint, they’re doubling him. There’s a lot of stuff that’s going on. So, I have to be creative. I have to go in the archives, you know, to try to get these guys open better. A lot of talk about getting better on third down. That’s been kind of Dan’s talking point of, you know, I looked at the numbers, fairly similar u on situations, medium, short to to last year. It’s those third and longs that really seem to be a problem. I think 0 for 20 on third and 10 and longer. How how difficult is it getting going on on those plays, scheming those plays up in particular? Listen, I I looked at all the third downs and I put, “Okay, why why did it happen?” Okay? And here’s it’s a collective it’s a collective reason that we’re not having results on certain times. Okay? And it’s just what it boils down to is just execution. I know every everybody says that, but really that’s what it is because there might be a guy open, oh, we didn’t pick it up right or somebody got beat, you know, or we dropped the ball. It’s it’s all these things. It’s all collectively or it was a bad call on my part. You know what I’m saying? That was the biggest thing that I took from it because if you take some of that stuff away, even the last game, there was a couple opportunities, man, we could had some big plays and it just didn’t happen. Um, so that the scheme of things, that’s what I was like, man, what what are we doing wrong here? It wasn’t that. It was just like, man, collectively when we do things right, pretty damn good. Pretty damn good. So, that was the biggest thing that I took from it. And I went back and watched every single one of the third downs last year that, you know, Detroit ran last year. And it’s the same type of concept. I mean, in my mind, that’s that’s kind of the stuff I’ve been doing. I want to run the same type of concepts and I got to dress it up with formations here and there and find ways to get guys off, but we have to do it collectively, okay? As a group. It’s just not one individual. It’s collectively where we’re breaking down and sometimes we’re getting beat at critical times. You know what I mean? It happened in the Kansas City game. Um we had a chance to hit J Mo for a big old play on third down and we got beat, you know? So that’s what’s going on on third down. And then sometimes, you know, third and long and things, you know, we’re in four down, you know, I’m trying to get the fourth and two and you know what I mean? And sometimes the calls is not try to get the first down sometimes and that happens sometimes when you look at it. So that’s kind of what’s going on. I feel good where we’re at right now that we just put the third down package in. I feel really good. You know, we have to be prepared for everything with Flores. So it’s all about the protection up front. That’s the number one thing we got because it doesn’t matter about all the plays. Can you expand a little bit maybe on on Flores? I’m sure you’ve run across him in, you know, your your career. Just what his defenses do so well and and why he’s he’s so good at what he does. Yeah, they cause havoc up front. You know, a lot of moving parts up front. Um coverages, different type of coverages. Um does a really good job in man zone tells. Uh but really it starts up front, you know what I mean? Trying to create trying to break down your protections to get guys through even in the run game and everything like that. So, um, it’s kind of calmed down a little bit this year, I think, based on some of their injuries that they’ve had. But listen, everybody plays us differently. So, we have to expect the unexpected with with him. That’s the biggest thing. Jared has had a lot of success against that defense over the last couple years. Just what have you been able to glean from watching the tape back about why he has been so good? Yeah, I think they’ve have ran the ball pretty well. I think that’s been the biggest thing. um you know and c trying to create some big plays that way. Um that was that’s the biggest thing that I took from it. Um you know when you do that when you create try to create some big plays and run the ball. I mean it helps out everything. So when we talked to you at training camp you expressed affinity for the deep ball. You said you know you love it. You want to do it as much as possible. Those opportunities haven’t been there. We know sometimes cover two, cover three, they take it away. Uh, is there anything you can do to to create more opportunities for for Jire to take those shots? Yeah, if if defense stopped playing shell all the time. I mean, that’s really the biggest thing. I mean, look at our personnel. I mean, teams are playing us differently because of who we have out there. And so, don’t get me wrong, we have plays for shots and it’s just not there sometimes. That’s just the way it goes. Um, you know, first and second down, we’re taking we’re taking a shot. If it ain’t there, we check it down. We’re not going to force anything. And I think you create big plays when you have third down. You can do that when you get more manto man and things like that. You can create some big plays. Uh, you know, we’re pretty good after the catch in the in the leagues. And that’s where we’ve been getting a lot of our big plays. So, but as the season goes on and people catch up to your tendencies, oh, this guy’s getting this. You know, defenses are not dumb. So there’s there’s always we always have plays where we’re trying to take shots. If it ain’t there, we’re going to check. We’re going to be smart. Patience and and being smart. Such a huge part of your job, the quarterback. I mean, that’s what Jared’s done. He’s done a great job. He’s done a great job with that. And that’s that’s smart football. If it’s there, we take it. Um if it’s not, we check it down. That you don’t force anything. You just don’t just throw it up. And that’s that’s not what you do. And back to Eric’s question, I mean, a lot of that shell is due to J Mo and his speech. Does he understand like when he’s not getting, you know, maybe touch Listen, he understands. He totally understands. Coach, there’s a really interesting connection with you and Nick Whit side of of all people on this roster. There’s an interesting connection with you and Nick Whiteside, same high school. You said your brother coached him. um with his little introduction to the NFL world this past weekend. Did you just have any conversations with him and just being from the same area and everything? I didn’t I didn’t even see what he did because I’m I’m too consumed in what I’m doing. Uh I mean, I heard the crowd. I saw I saw the replays. I think it’s it’s awesome, you know. Um to have somebody from my high school that can do that. It’s good. It’s you know, it’s kind of like my story a little bit. you know, he’s he’s had a lot of ups and downs and he’s fought his way and listen, he had opportunity. He did a good job, you know, and hopefully that gives him confidence and you never know what can happen. When you get confidence, guys change, you know, in different environments. Hey, John, when you were here in 2022, Jir wasn’t here yet. Now that you’ve had a chance to coach him for seven games, is there anything he does that is even more impressive than you could have imagined? Just what’s been your takeaway so far? Everything. I mean, he’s he’s a freak, man. I mean, you we’re getting a lot of explosive plays from him. I mean, just give him the ball, whether it’s a run or quick screen or routes. It’s just he’s very impressive and the more he does it, the better he’s going to get. Um, you know, I was with Waller at in Vegas, man, they’re like he was a freak. I mean, guy looks I mean, he’s 66, 255 lbs and runs 43. I mean, come on. It’s crazy. So, I look at him every day, you know, him to him. Him him it’s just about being consistent and everything and mastering your craft, you know, don’t get don’t get bored of what you do. Be great at it. That’s what great players do all the time. But he’s been pretty impressive, no doubt. Just kind of a bigger question about the running game overall. Some of the efficiency metrics are a little bit down from last year. Just kind of your assessment of where the run game is at through seven games. Um, I think we’ve been pretty efficient. uh as of late. I mean, we got some big plays, but listen, Hank does a great job. Coach Campbell, those guys do a great job with the run game of trying to scheme thing. Again, people play people play us differently. I mean, it’s a it’s a loaded box and we’re running the ball in a loaded box where normally people, hey, let’s just throw it. But why do we do that? Because our white outs block. You know what I mean? Our white outs block and teams know that. But we don’t care because they block. A lot of teams do care because a lot of receivers don’t block the way our guys do because that’s why we’re a great team. We’re unselfish. You know what I mean? So, I’m not worried about that right now. You said that a couple times that teams play you different, you know, than everyone else. And I think you’ve said it before. Other people have said that. Can you just explain that a little bit more? Like what the situation when you got weapons like we do or like you play this opponent, a division opponent, right? They kind of know what you do. like when we watch them on defense, we’re watching other teams in our division because that you because you know how to play each other. You know what I’m saying? So when you see that when other teams see like what we’re doing, they pick up on things and then oh that’s a big tendency. Oh, we’re going to do this. You know what I mean? So that’s why, you know, we stay on top of our self scout and everything. Or like coverage wise, you know, third down, you know, maybe we won’t see a lot of man-to-man. I don’t know. Um, do a lot to your personnel as there’s no question. It’s all about the personnel. It is all about the personnel. I mean, if you don’t I mean, we got five weapons, right? If you got one or two, I mean, you can just go over there and just shut that down. You know what I mean? So, that’s why, you know, when I was talking to the guys about third down, some some guys are going to have to step up because Sane is getting doubled and now J. Mo’s getting doubled. You know what I mean? So, we have to step up that way. But that’s that that’s what happens.

Hear from Detroit Lions coordinators Dave Fipp, Kelvin Sheppard and John Morton as they meet with the media on October 30, 2025 at Meijer Performance Center.

0:00 – 14:06: Dave Fipp
14:07 – 28:31: Kelvin Sheppard
28:32 – 40:14: John Morton

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