Amon-Ra St. Brown and David Montgomery are discussing the differences between Morton and Ben Johnson<\/a>. The two basically said that Morton is far more intense when installing plays, really selling the team on each play\u2019s eventual success. The Lions OC found the impressions accurate.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty good. I was taught, (John) Gruden installed plays, he was the best install I\u2019ve ever seen, he goes, \u2018You\u2019ve got to be a car salesman,\u2019\u201d Morton said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make that play the best play in the world. So, if it takes a little noises and this and that, you\u2019ve got to talk to somebody, you\u2019ve got to do it. You\u2019ve got to sell it. You can\u2019t just go up there and be, \u2018Blah, blah\u2019. You can\u2019t do that. Who wants to be around a guy like that? So, you\u2019ve got to have energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard<\/p>\n
Kelvin Sheppard: Officially a fan of the QB spy<\/p>\n
Back in 2022, Sheppard vehemently disagreed with the utilization of a QB spy, saying, \u201cWhat you do is you waste a defender when you operate like that, and you\u2019re playing prevent defense in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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On Monday against the Ravens, the Lions defense weaponized a spy early and often. Sheppard joked that a Lions reporter finally convinced him before the game, but, in reality, he said don\u2019t believe everything he says publicly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to schematics, if you guys haven\u2019t figured out, I rarely give that information out. So, I wouldn\u2019t believe much that I ever say about schematic things in public,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n
The Lions defensive coordinator said he got inspiration to use the spy more after watching Bills linebacker Matt Milano three years ago help handle Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Sheppard found a way to incorporate what the Bills did into the Lions\u2019 defense, and keep the Ravens guessing on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a fine line of trying to incorporate some of that, but within what we do here. That\u2019s why it was so hard on them,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cIt\u2019s not because of a spy guys, it\u2019s because we\u2019re making everything look the same. And when you do that, it\u2019s impossible to know who\u2019s coming, who\u2019s the spy, who\u2019s in coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Lions don\u2019t block things out. They hear everything\u2014especially edge defender talk <\/p>\n
The company line within a locker room is to say that they aren\u2019t worried about what is being said on the outside. They block out all of that noise so they can stay focused. Sheppard cracked that facade, noting that\u2014in the era of phones and social media\u2014players hear everything. And it\u2019s clear they\u2019ve taken some of the outside conversation about edge defenders personally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hear you loud and clear that we only have one pass rusher here,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cThey hear you loud and clear when you say we only got close to Jordan Love two times. And these guys take pride in their profession. It\u2019s why it\u2019s a joy to coach these guys. It\u2019s a joy to be able to do what I do every day because these guys take pride in what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard \u201chad to have\u201d Derrick Barnes<\/p>\n
The Lions defensive coordinator told a story about how he approached general manager Brad Holmes and told him Barnes was \u201ca player I had to have.\u201d The Lions listened, handing Barnes a three-year, $25.5 million extension back in March.<\/p>\n
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Sheppard went on to explain how Barnes\u2019 versatility\u2014being able to play essentially four or five different roles\u2014really opens up the entire defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a player like that, it allows you that ability to present the same looks pre-snap and then post-snap be able to play a different variety of coverages, different variety of pressure packages and things like that,\u201d Sheppard said. (Trevor) Nowaske\u2019s kind of the same. These guys, when you\u2019re able to deploy four and five linebacker sets and formations and play any of your defenses, that\u2019s a different ball game.\u201c<\/p>\n
Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp<\/p>\n
Kick returner shakeups<\/p>\n
Last week, the Lions made a change at kick returner, replacing linebacker Grant Stuard with running back Sione Vaki. Fipp noted that Vaki\u2019s return from injury played part of the reason why they made they change. He also noted how the Ravens liked to line-drive kick on the play, and he felt it necessary to bring in offensive players who can handle the ball safely.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe wanted two guys who could definitely field those balls. That was kind of more their skillset. Two offensive players, so that factored into it a little bit,\u201d Fipp said.<\/p>\n
But with Vaki now sidelined again with a groin injury, Fipp may have to go back to the drawing board. Does that mean Stuard could be back in a returner role? Possibly. But one name to keep an eye on is Kalif Raymond. The Lions receiver replaced Vaki in the middle of Monday\u2019s game. While Fipp said they\u2019ve been trying to avoid using Raymond because he has had a significant offensive role through three games, with Isaac TeSlaa cutting into those reps, it\u2019s possible Raymond takes over at returner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see who we have available this week and do the same thing. Kalif came in and ended up playing for us, which has kind of been our goal to keep him out of there, early on anyway,\u201d Fipp said. \u201cHe\u2019s playing 30-plus snaps of offense and just trying to balance that, he\u2019s our punt returner. But ultimately if we need him, we\u2019ll play him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Detroit Lions coordinators had their weekly press obligations on Thursday to recap Monday\u2019s game against the Baltimore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[4566,117,228,86,85,54,2337,597,6016,113,7,6283,842,22881,14987,1724,6282,14986,11497,12187,6,1735,582,4378],"class_list":{"0":"post-396598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-amon-ra-st-brown","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-bengals","11":"tag-browns","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-cleveland-browns","14":"tag-clevelandbrowns","15":"tag-david-montgomery","16":"tag-derrick-barnes","17":"tag-detroit-lions","18":"tag-football","19":"tag-grant-stuard","20":"tag-isaac-teslaa","21":"tag-jim-schwartz","22":"tag-john-morton","23":"tag-jordan-love","24":"tag-kalif-raymond","25":"tag-kelvin-sheppard","26":"tag-kick-returner","27":"tag-matt-milano","28":"tag-nfl","29":"tag-sione-vaki","30":"tag-the-browns","31":"tag-the-lions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}