Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | December 1, 2025

Detroit Lions coordinators meet with the media | December 1, 2025

What jumps out about Dallas’s special teams? Obviously Turing gets a lot of the headlines. He’s a dynamic returner, but when you watch the tape prepared for, what jumps out the most? Yeah, number nine is obviously a great player. We know um firsthand. We’ve seen him a bunch of times. Uh he makes everybody around him much better, which uh is what the great ones do. Um but I would also say that they got they got a bunch of guys who play really hard, do a good job, do a good job what they’re executing and asking them to do, blocking, tackling. Um, so we definitely, it’s a challenge for us going in this game. We got to play well, obviously, help our team win. Sorry. His role is expanded a little bit on offense. Has that done anything to a special teams role? Like, is he your catch? Yeah. No, he’s uh he’s doing the same stuff. You know, those types of guys, they can light it up any play. It just takes one of them. Um, when I was in Philly, we had Deshawn Jackson. He was playing a lot on offense. He’d still go back there and he could still change the game in one play, you know. So, you have to take care of them, every one of those. and you got to expect his very very best, which I’m sure he’ll give us. Um, we did talk to you after the Giants game, but I was I was curious just talking to Jake about the the kick he made at the end of the game. Um, you know, has that interesting right to left curve to it. He said he doesn’t want to live in that world. Just kind of the way some of his, you know, his tendencies have gone. What What is it about the way he kicks the ball that causes that? And how easy is that to get out of his game? Yeah. Uh, I think when the ball moves a little bit, the more the ball moves, probably the higher up you’re hitting on the ball, the lower you’re hitting on the ball, the more it’s just spinning, uh, rotating. Um, but, uh, the higher up you hit, the more it it moves a little bit left and right. Um, I think the higher up you hit on the ball, the lower the trajectory, too, at times. So, it just kind of depends, but ball contact, foot contact on the ball is going to change how it goes or travels. Now, I would tell you that a lot of a lot of kickers, their ball will move very similar to that. A little right, little left, especially when they’re hitting a hard ball from way back deep. Um, meaning they’re putting a lot on the kick. Um, not not the hardness of the ball, but the uh how hard they’re kicking the ball um or putting into the ball from their leg. Um the more it may move like that a little bit, which obviously on a long kick you have to do. So, I would say it was it was not totally normal, but not totally abnormal either. You guys had some good kick returns the last couple games. Just what has the common denominator been? Yeah. Um, I think we had a punt return and a decent kick return. Um, you know, all those plays come down to, well, a few things. Um, I think I alluded to going in or the last time we talked, I guess it was two weeks ago. Um, some of it’s controlled by the other team and their punter and how he punts the ball to you. Like those guys in the last game punted the ball a little bit further down the field, so obviously it set up more of an opportunity to return it. Um, so I think it’s it’s obviously blocking and creating space in the returning game for players. Um, and then it’s obviously the returner hitting the ball downhill. Um, or doing a good job making some guys miss and all that. I thought TK did a great job. He attacked the coverage. He played downhill. He was fast. He was quick. He played with a purpose. He’s trying to make it happen. A lot of times you see that when a guy gets an opportunity, which is like it’s a great part of this game, you know, is uh is there’s a guy waiting in the wings and when he gets his shot, man, he’s trying to capitalize and make the very most of it. And I thought he did a good job of that both on kickoffs and on punts. Um but anytime anytime one player plays well, that means there must be a bunch of guys around him who’ve done a good job, too. So all the guys blocking for the play obviously helped out a lot. What kind of asset can Tom Kennedy be for your special teams unit now he’s got a chance to be on I think you seen him I mean it’s this league’s crazy like that. I mean here’s Tom Kennedy the guy’s been up on our roster. He’s been down. He’s bounced around. He’s he’s sat in the wings for a long time. He’s gotten his shot on offense and special teams multiple times. I think he for the most part he’s gone in there and done a good job, you know, and there’s there’s a lot of guys like that and um it’s crazy. They’re just kind of hanging around. I mean anybody could take him. He’s been on our practice squad, somebody come in and claim them, put him on their active roster if they wanted. Um, but ultimately every time he gets a chance to go in the game, he’s been productive for us really probably in both phases, which is great to see. And it’s a credit to him. I mean, the guy just keeps grinding away. And this league is full of guys like that who have great stories. They just keep believing in themselves. They keep competing, keep playing. And all those guys can really hope for is an opportunity. You get an opportunity to go make plays. that’s all you can do, which he’s done. Um, and then you just have to hope somebody wants you bad enough to put you on their active roster and make you their full-time guy or or whatnot. There’s a lot to that, obviously. Um, but, uh, anyways, I’m happy for him. He’s done a great job. He’s done a great job for us this whole time he’s been here in a lot of ways, the way he practices and helps other guys prepare, talking to other players, young players, and helping them out, letting them learn. Um, so great, great young man. um did well for us and obviously we need him to continue to do that. What what is the like mood of the team right now? You know, outside world there’s a lot of people think the sky’s falling and things haven’t looked as crisp as they did last year, but what what is the mood, you know, inside? Yeah, I would say I mean what’s the mood? You know, guys want to win. I would say that. Um they don’t like losing. So that’d be fair to say. I think ultimately to me it’s really kind of well welcome back to reality. You know, I mean, you live in this world where you win 15 games in a year or something. That doesn’t happen very often back to back to back to back. So, reality says that you’re really never as good as you think you are. You’re never as bad as you think you are. You’re somewhere in between. Um, most teams have to fight to get 10, 11, 12 wins in a season. And, uh, anyways, that’s where we’re at. I think for us in the building, I I would say for me personally as a coach, um, anytime you’re going through times where you’re not playing as well as you want or you’re not winning as many games as you want, I think all too often everyone, well, how can we do this? Well, you do that by executing this or just take it back down to simple things, man. Uh, what you’re asking them to do, how you’re asking them to do it, how they’re doing it, technique, fundamentals, execution. Ultimately, the game comes down to technique, fundamentals, execution, detail, discipline, all those things. And if you’re worried about the win or playing great on whatever side of the ball or lighting it up and the return game or well, how are you going to do that? You got to go back to how um and I think that’s like, you know, you process oriented goals, uh things that are going to make a difference with the outcome is what you got to focus on. And it’s usually a lot simpler than you think. Um, so anyways, for us, all of us, myself included, to go back to that, the basics, just worrying about the things that you can control, whether that be me individually, the player individually, what those guys can control, what they can handle, what they can fix, just worry about that. And if everybody does a great job of that, we’ll get the results that we want. Dave, on that note, we all know this team hasn’t lost back-to-back games in more than three years. You’ve been around this game for a long time, part of lots of different teams and coaching staffs. What about this building or this team is unique that allows this team to bounce back from losses so well? Yeah, I would say that a big part of that’s our head coach. I mean, these guys have a lot of respect for him. Um, and I would also say a lot of that’s the players. Um, they have a lot of respect for each other. And sometimes when you don’t have that in these buildings, guys are more interested in what they’re doing or their numbers or their success or their contracts or whatever that is. Um when you get individuals worried about themselves then it gets very difficult and uh we don’t have that at all. We have great players that are committed to the team and the guy next to them. They play for the guy next to him. We have a head coach a great leader and those guys all respect him a great deal. Um and uh so they’re going to make sure they give him also everything they got which in return makes our job as assistants much easier. Um because those guys give us everything they got whether it’s practice or a game. And uh if we just give them the right stuff and do a good job coaching, then those guys will perform well and play well. And uh so we got to do that for them, all of us, myself included there. Um but yeah, I would say that’s probably the biggest part of it. And those other buildings, you know, players, guys are doing their own thing. They’re worried about themselves, individuals. Uh makes it very difficult and that happens a lot in these buildings. Um, and then obviously if they don’t respect the leadership in the building, whether that’s the head coach or the GM or the owner, uh, ownership, um, which I think they clearly do here, then it makes everyone’s job a lot easier. And when things don’t go well, they don’t just fall apart, you know. Want to ask you one about Jack. Um, those are my opinions anyway. Uh, greater percentage of his punts are ending inside the 20 than any point in his career. maybe something to do with just field positioning, kickoffs, whatnot, but zero touchbacks, you know, how how rare is is what he’s doing, I guess, in terms of controlling that within that range of the field. Yeah, I think that’s been a real positive. You know, touchback’s always been something that bothers me cuz you’re just talking about handing field position away. I mean, we talk in this room a lot about, you know, you know that I like the value of a yard. you know, whether that’s Khalif returning the ball for one yard even though there’s a guy in his face. Um, to me it makes a difference in the game and it creates an opportunity for the guys around you. Um, so anytime you’re giving away yardage, whether it be penalties, especially penalties in the return game, um, to me it’s just devastating. You’re just handing the other team yards and plays and field position. Ultimately, this game really becomes about field position. I think the inside the 20 thing does have to do with field position. Um I know I’ve talked about this, but field position is really controlled by all three phases. A lot of people say it’s created by special teams and I don’t agree with that. On the kickoff, it certainly is. That’s the start of the drive. It’s going to start wherever we give the ball to the offense or defense um after that play. But uh the punt play is totally different. If uh we’re punting from way back deep, obviously it’s going to be hard to pin them into the 20. So that means if the ball starts deep in our side of the field, our offense going to have to move it. Well, why did it get back there? Maybe their team punted the ball deep um in order for them to punt it deep on us and they’re going to have to move it on our defense. So it’s really controlled by all three phases. And uh so anytime I think a unit’s playing well in that area, obviously a bunch of it due to offense, defense, too, um and playing the field position game, but uh he certainly has done a great job putting the ball down in there. Um, and uh, it’s been positive because that when I got here, I don’t think was one of his strengths. I don’t think he would say that either. And uh, so I think he’s he’s definitely improved in that area. This game’s hard, man. It’s just it’s always something you got to work on and get better at. But yeah, good morning. How’s it going? Good. All right. Uh, quick recap um, from the Packers game. uh obviously not the result that we wanted. Uh not only as a team but as a defense. Uh whenever we leave a game and we’re not able to pull out a victory, I initially look into that mirror and say, “What could I have done better?” Uh and giving up, I told Dan, giving up 31 points is unacceptable. Um and that’s any week. Uh and I know each week you go in and out of these games, each week is played differently. It’s going to dictate the way you have to call the game, the way you have to play the game. And that day we needed to hold him under 24 and we obviously didn’t do that. Uh a number of reasons but probably the most disappointing things that transpired in the game. Uh you go back to some of the critical things that came up. Um some of those fourth downs uh we were they were 50% on third down but you look at fourth down they were three for three. Uh that’s now becoming a common theme on fourth down. I told the defense to where we’re at the point of attack to make the play and for some reason, for some strange reason this year, we’re not making that play. Uh that’s something that we’re going to have to flip the switch on. And I mean right now. Uh and then outside of that, we had a play where we had 10 guys on the field. Uh and they got a 13yd explosive run. Uh they finished the day with 125 4.2 average. Uh, and their longest run of the day was a simple day one training camp swap inside zone where we didn’t really hammer the ball back and fit it correctly. That went for 29. Another 14 on a jet sweep. Uh, and then a 13 yard with 10 people on the field in the gap where the player should have been. That’s totally unacceptable and that starts with me. Uh, it’s not a player’s not an assistant coach. That starts with me. And then the most critical is the uh third and seven down in the red zone where we had 12 people on the field and that’s never been an issue here and it won’t be moving forward. Totally unacceptable in my opinion. That’s a four-point swing and the way Dan’s able to call that game without that touchdown being there is completely different. So I put a lot of that loss on me as the defensive coordinator and on us as a defensive unit. Uh those things have been addressed. The players taking full accountability. It’s the reason I enjoy coaching this room so much and we’re moving on in Dallas. Uh, one of the things that that we’ve seen the last uh couple games at least some explosive plays in in the past game. Are you affecting the quarterback enough in your opinion to play the kind of style that you want to play in the back end? Uh, I don’t think we’ve affected the quarterback to play any style these last couple of weeks. Uh, I don’t care what kind of style we want to play. Uh, and the guys understand that. And again, that starts with me. I’m not going to just point the finger. You got to win a one-on-one. Yeah. No, no. Yeah, you got to win one-on- ones in this league. Uh, but I also got to find ways to try to maximize what we do have to our disposal and put these guys in optimal position to be able to win, give them tools to win. I told the room, it’s our job to eliminate any gray, any hesitation in play, and it’s their job to go out and execute. uh and that’s coach to player, player to player on the field. Uh so no, obviously we haven’t affected the quarterback at the rate that we were earlier in the year. Uh there’s things that we’re going to switch up a little bit by personnel, by schematically, but at the end of the day, you start to get in November, December, players make plays just like when we when I stood up here and we were limiting people to 10 points, 16 points, all this and people were talking about us like we the 85 Bears. I never said anything about it being some type of good roof schematics. It’s the players that’s going out and executing and making that happen. And it’s no different when we don’t play so good. The players have to take accountability to that. I got to start with me and say, “What could I have done differently?” And if guys are at the point of attack, if you have a one-on-one, you have to win those in this realm where we at in this part of the season. Obviously a focus every week, but especially this week against that offense, that quarterback, those receivers. Just how do you ensure that you’re converting those pressures into sacks? Uh like I said, just finishing uh it’s a lot of too close almost happening still in November going into now December where that’s absolutely won’t be tolerated. Uh being close isn’t good enough. Uh you have to make that play and that’s coverage and rush. They marry each other. Uh there’s there’s no dominant defensive secondary in this league without a good pass rush. There’s no good pass rush without some type of coverage happening on the back end. So, the guys understand that and we have to find a way to mesh and jail those at the highest level this week against one of the top, if not the top offense in the NFL right now with both the uh the 10 and the 12. I don’t I don’t know if this was the case, but it seemed like the quarterback rotation was involved. I don’t know if that was the case, but if it was, is there something that has to be fixed with that or or how much did that contribute to some of those? No, that’s elementary to be honest with you. And it’s totally inexcusable to have 10 to have 12 to have 13. I don’t 11 on 111 football. I mean, I started playing it when I was five years old, and it was simple as this. When I was six years old, I knew if I ran on the field, somebody should be running off. It It doesn’t It doesn’t come down to, oh, the packages. No. No. If I run on, somebody should run off. Let’s use common sense and make sure that doesn’t happen again. Chef, we know um Hutchinson’s ability and the the attention he commands. Micah commands that kind of attention. Miles Garrett commands that kind of attention. They’re getting home a little bit more right now. What what does Aiden have to do more despite the attention he’s drawing? Yeah, I’m not sure what other people’s doing in their facility or you start to play this comparable game. We can go down that line with media members. That guy in New York’s writing better report than guys like no man no we’re we’re we’re not going to play that game. What I know is I have a highlevel player, one of the best, if not the best edge rushers in this league. He knows just like we know people are going to plan for him. That’s why he is one of the best and he has to combat that. But it isn’t a one-man show. Other people have to win. And when I mean I’m not just talking about Hutch. I’m not just talking about Mac. I thought Mac was a very impactful rusher in the middle all Thanksgiving day. But it just can’t be those two guys. When your name is called, if you draw one-on-one, you have to win in this league if you want to be around. And it’s just simple as that. How was just emphasizing them in meetings? What can you do to help force more turnovers to to force more turnovers? Uh when the first thing first when we do get the ops and the ball is out, we got to come up with it. We had a chance for a huge huge play down in the red zone when DJ Reed made a phenomenal job right there in the tight red and he got the ball out on a little double slant uh concept they had going and DJ Reed got the ball out. We got to find a way to get that ball and I don’t care about it taking a bad bounce bad turn. when those balls are out, they have to be ours at this point in the year and just continue to do what they’ve done. What I don’t want is players trying to reach and go out of their realm of their responsibility to make a play. The plays will come to you all year. That’s how it’s been happening. It hasn’t been anybody doing anything heroic. The play the the the plays come to you and when you have those options, you have to make them. As simple as that. How was Kirby doing mentally? you know, he uh he’s deleted all his social media here overnight and you know, just obviously the injury is something that’s been wearing on him. How’s he? Curry’s doing great. He’s ready to get back. Um he was as upbeat as I’ve ever seen him last week uh leading in the week knowing that he’s scratching and clawing. Uh hopefully it’s a chance we get him back pretty soon here. But Kirby’s good, man. Arguably one of the best uh receiving duos in the in the league and Pickkins and and Lamb. Just when you watch them on tape, how are they different players? How do they complement each other? What’s the the the the task this week of of trying to defend two guys on the outside who are so dynamic? Yeah. Uh these guys are two of the top in the league, the the top of the top top echelon. Uh and and what do they do different? I mean, they both run the whole route tree. Uh the the only thing I would say that’s really different is the physical nature in which George Pickkins presents himself on the field. a huge huge catch radius, very physical at the point of attack, wheels himself open, where CD man, he’ll sink them hips, he’ll come in and out of them, he’ll put you in a blender if you’re not right with your leverage, if you don’t understand what you’re doing. Uh, so, so they do a really good job keeping them apart as well. And what I mean by that, on opposite sides, which means you have to cover the whole field. Uh, you rarely see them together, and that’s good. Shotti’s doing an outstanding job. They have some of the top personnel in the league. And I told the defense, we’re exactly where we want to be. Like, and that might sound crazy, but in my opinion, we’re exactly where we want to be. You can say backs against the wall. What I see is a great opportunity with everything. When we started this year, we had goals and aspirations. All those goals and aspirations still lie ahead of us. But now, it’s just a more sense of urgency, which it always should have been. But sometimes we all, it’s human nature. You need a little nudge. You need a little reminder of where you’ve been. instead of where you at or where you think you’re owed if you’re owed something. We just need a little reminder and I just hope it’s a wakeup call to us all. There’s an urgency and there’s a margin for error that’s no longer tolerable and it’s simple as that. Kelvin, you had a chance to review it last year too. What do you what are some of the challenges of stopping Shanheimer offensively? Oh, I mean now what’s a little different than before because Shotti’s been on staff there for a while now. He was there with Mike and all that so he understands it’s a lot of the same five but the personnel is different. Uh they’ve done a great job building that offensive line. Uh that’s that’s the initial difference I see when I turn on their tape this year. It’s a physical group that’s getting movement at the point of attack. And then they did a good job going out and finding a back that I’ve always had a lot of respect for in this league. And Javvante since he was drafted out of North Carolina at Denver and we played him as a young pup. I always knew that was a special kid, man. Barring injury, he’s a top back in this league and they did a good job finding him and he understands the scheme, his running style. has 734 yards after contact. There’s a lot of plays on tape where guys missing. We don’t have the margin for error to miss those plays. So, understanding it’s a run pass. They keep you off balance 50/50. They know teams going to play with a shell. So, that’s why they attack you the way they do in the run game. They do a very good job. It’s a balanced attack and I’m looking forward to this challenge. I can ask one more then. Uh what are your thoughts about uh Coach Gin landing at LSU? Oh, it’s outstanding. I think uh that Lane, you know, not to get off track. Obviously, all my sole focus is on the Dallas Cowboys, but I absolutely want to congratulate the new uh head coach of my alma model, Lane Kein. I think he’s going to bring back a championship mentality and a championship atmosphere like it belongs at um down there in Baton Rouge. Chef, you’re not I mean, you said this is exactly where you guys want to be. Can you just expand on that maybe a little bit more before you leave? You know, outside the seems like the world’s falling to to some of these Lions fans who who don’t understand that, you know, maybe this is the NFL. Yeah, but why do why do you guys embrace this moment so much even though you’re sort of, you know, out of the playoff race or out of the playoff? Because I’ve been trained and conditioned. The same reason I don’t panic when I lose three starters on the back end because I see an opportunity ahead of us. I see an opportunity where we’re back in that realm of being doubted. I see an opportunity to where everybody’s not looking at us as the class of the NFL. So, that’s why I say it’s right where we want to be cuz it’s right where I like to live. Right. Right. Right here. Just in the back. in the back just laying in the weeds and waiting to bite somebody ass. So, I’m looking forward to this week and I know our players feel the same way. All right, guys. Go ahead, man. How’s our defense kind of uh turned a corner since they’ve added Quinnon Williams? Seems like the trick on kind of a cat for them. Yeah, I think uh you really see what they’re all about since the last four weeks. I mean, they’re three and one. Um it’s the front. Those guys are getting after it. you know, those two guys in the middle. Um, him clowning, he’s playing, he’s playing at a high level right now. So, that’s going to be a thing that we have to be aware of and we are setting the game plan up a certain way. Um, just like we always have, but they are really getting after it up front. Um, that’s the way, you know, the Uber Foo’s defense has been about. So, they did a good job trading for those guys and it’s helped and they’re playing complimentary football. So, you guys are bit uh down at tight end right now just personnel wise. How do you a little bit how do you sort of, you know, massage the personnel you have to fit what you want to do? Yeah, I mean it’s kind of cool. I mean, uh, next man up, guys are going to get opportunities. I mean, I thought it was great last week. Uh, you know, Saint goes down, TK comes in. Man, he did a hell of a job. It was awesome. You It’s good to have him. Uh, he’s a veteran guy. came in, stepped in, you know, a quarterback. He didn’t lose a beat and uh I thought I thought he play did a great job. So, that’s kind of cool, you know, creating different um personnel groupings and trying to get guys in certain spots to get guys open. JM Mo had a great game last week. He stepped up big time. It was great to see that. So, uh yeah, I mean, it’s tough not having uh the tight ends that we’ve had, but hey, you know, we got plenty of good personnel. I don’t I don’t mind mixing up the personnel and getting guys in different spots and giving them a chance. It’s fine. Sorry, John. Is is Jackson Meek someone that could help you guys at tight end if that’s the way you go? Like, is he that advanced yet in his development there that he could contribute on on game day? Yeah, I think he at tight end at wide receiver. I think he can do both, you know. Um, we’ll see. We’ll see if uh if he has opportunity to do that. The um that pass across the middle that you know was kind of behind Jameson, maybe it was a drop, maybe it wasn’t. How do you do you classify that as a drop? Is that something he should get his hands? Yeah, it hit his hands. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Could it have been a better throw? Sure. Could he have caught the ball? Sure. And he’s caught those. And Jared’s made those throws. It hit his hands. Just, you know, Scotty’s always said, I I coach white outs. If he hits your hands, you catch the ball. And that was fourth down play, he’s probably going to score. It was manto man. So, the things on like fourth down and third down, it’s the same it’s the same thing that we’ve been talking about, man. We do this together. we do things right, okay, we’re damn good. Okay, when when we’re when we’re airing in technique and details and things like that or just one it’s just one guy, you know, it’s tough. It’s tough. So, that’s been the thing. That’s that’s what’s been what’s been going on. So, um you know, the guys respond. I mean, we did pretty good on third down last week, you know, considering we didn’t have a lot of our guys. And it’s a tribute to the, you know, the old line, the quarterback, and those guys coming in, our coaches getting those guys prepared. I mean, those guys had to go in different spots that they’re not used to. I I thought it was pretty impressive, you know. So, yeah, it was just a couple miscues that we had, but it’s like that, you know, the game comes down to four or five plays, you know, every game. and um we can’t afford to do that. So you you mentioned the revolving door of of issues on fourth down. You guys were toward the top of the league uh before that Philadelphia game. Then 0 and7 will quickly change a stat on you. Yeah. Um is there anything you can do as a coaching staff to to simplify to to calm the guys down in those critical situations? No, I mean we had we had the right plays called and like I just told you we aired someplace whether it was a drop, whether it was a throw, whether we didn’t do the right technique. It’s it’s those things. You know what I’m saying? So we we all have our hand in this. And uh I’m not concerned. I’m not concerned because we got the guys we got the guys to get it done. So I’m not concerned with that. Uh now if it’s a scheme issue and stuff like that, I am concerned because that’s on us. That’s on us and it it’s all on us. The whole thing is I mean we do this thing together and uh I’m not concerned with that. It it’ll happen. It’s going to happen. Um so I mean it’s the simplest thing of catching a ball or making the throw or running the right route the right way. It’s all those things all the little things. You know, you’re playing guys in different spots and you got some young guys and there’s some things that they haven’t, you know, it’s a certain technique they haven’t seen it or a certain coverage that they haven’t seen it. That’s tough on rookies. You know, that’s tough. That’s tough to come into this league cuz you’re going to see a lot of different things. So, we’re always on pinpoint on everything, man. The way we install when we show the looks, we got to go out and do it. You know, it’s tough. Like, you know, like last week, you don’t even have a chance to go practice. You know what I mean? So you don’t get it full speed, but that’s not an excuse. It’s not an excuse. So u it’s like it’s like I said before, these guys are not rookies anymore. We’re put trying to put them in the right position to have success, which we are. We just got to get it done. We got to execute. That’s the bottom line, man. You got to execute. You got to execute every play. Every single play, every down. Okay. That’s what you do. Are you look at anything to to get off to faster starts? Last three games haven’t scored in the first quarter, been behind at halftime. Is there anything you can do to get that thing moving quicker? Um, you know, I Yeah, there’s there things you can do. I mean, you can, you know, based on, you know, when you put up the first plays of the game, right? You look at kind of what they do in the beginning of a game. All right. And then you go off what you did in practice. Okay. What’s good? All right, Hank, this is good. Okay, the passing game. Okay, we like this. What’s the quarterback like? What is certain running backs like in the beginning of a game? And usually you want to try to do things that they’re not thinking a lot. That’s usually what you want to try to do. And that’s that’s what we’ve done. Um again, we just aired in the execution. Um all around. So I think that’s the biggest thing. Um you know, we talk about things changing things at halftime, stuff like that. It’s the same type of deal. Okay. What are they doing? They doing anything different? No. What do you guys like? You know, when we get together at halftimes, what do you guys like? What are you guys seeing? We all do it together. Put it together. All right. Let’s go. let’s do this. Um, that’s that’s the biggest thing I think if you can do things in the beginning, uh, based on kind of what they do in the beginning of a game, that’s the way I’ve been taught. That’s the way I approach it with Dan. I give him all the tendencies and things like that, how they’re doing things. And then you go from there. And it might be, hey, quarterback likes this, the running back likes that, the old line likes this play. So, you put that in because they like it, so let’s go do it. So, I know you don’t want to lose any kind of player of Amar’s caliber to potential injury, but um how much can it boost Jameson’s development getting a handful more of a first team or a first look at? I think it’s great. I think he stepped up last week. Um I mean the Corrite made some great throws. I think he was had 15 completions in a row at one time and uh he did a great job. That’s what he’s supposed to do. We put him in the right spot. He made the quarterback made the throw. Um he’s a weapon, you know, just like Gibbs is. You got some guys that are weapons. It’s it’s kind of cool, but it was great to see that he did that, you know. He’s had a few games now um that he stepped up. So, I I love it, you know, and you know, as a receiver, as any player, I mean, you build confidence like that. Let’s go. You know, it’s kind of cool. But some other guys are going to have to step up. You know what I’m saying? So, cuz we’re limited. We’re limited in a way, John, with the uh the ground game. Yeah. Seemed like a lot of the fits were pretty good up front and it was the second level stuff, not getting a body on the linebacker, maybe the the running back, I’m sorry, the wide receiver not digging out the safety. Was that execution, timing? Was were they doing something defensively that was tough to adapt to? No, they didn’t do anything that we didn’t practice. It was execution. Bottom line, I’ll say it again. Execution. That’s what it was. Is is there anything just just the way sometimes defenses fire? Um is there anything like they you say fire you mean? Yeah. Fire downhill like on a run play. Is there is there ever you know something that shows up on film that they’re reading something in your tendencies or is that just the style that certain defenses play? No, it’s just the style. I mean depending on the situation too, you know what I mean? If it’s second and short, third and short, they’re going to be coming downhill. Um, and we do a really good job with ourselves scout, but the the bottom line is just the execution. Yeah, they can fire all they want and we have other plays that we’re watching the game and we’re looking at what they’re doing, but if we don’t do the proper technique, the proper block that ain’t going to work. That’s what it boils down to. You’re watching tape, huh? Try. Okay, that’s good. We We are too. Just real quick, you you mentioned some of the different personnel packages you can use to kind of make up for the tight end. Stan Skipper is one of the guys who’s seen a little bit of an uptake and uh just how valuable is it to have a guy like a 6 lineman who has so much experience doing that and can just jump right in. Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s awesome to have him because he he has to step up a little bit because of the tight end situation right now. I mean, he ran some routes last year. Did you guys see that? I saw it. I saw it on tape. So, I’m working with him a little bit. Uh, but yeah, I think it’s I think it’s very valuable. You got you have to you have to do those types of things. You got to have, like I said, different personnel guys. Your down tight ends. All right, you got to go in or maybe we use two back. You know what I mean? You just you got to figure it out. That’s that’s what we have to do right now. And uh the good thing is we did those things in training camp, OTAAS, you know, just to prepare us for this moment right now. So, I mean, I didn’t know we weren’t going to have two tight ends, but other guys got to step up. Some tips for skipper as a route runner, huh? Some tips for skipper as a router. Just go play fast. Big man, react to zone. That’s what I always say. Let’s get this W,

Hear from Detroit Lions coordinators Dave Fipp, Kelvin Sheppard and John Morton as they meet with the media on December 1, 2025 at Meijer Performance Center.

0:00 – 11:06: Dave Fipp
11:07 – 22:50: Kelvin Sheppard
22:51 – 33:22: John Morton

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