We have a separate article on Sheppard\u2019s defense of his scheme here.<\/a><\/p>\nLosing their \u201cAngel in the Outfield\u201d <\/p>\n
Sheppard was asked about the impact of losing both starting safeties\u2014Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph\u2014to injuries. Before he got into the the positional impact, he noted that any time a team loses two All-Pro level players, it\u2019s going to hurt them. That said, Sheppard wasn\u2019t about to throw their replacements under the bus, noting that they did compete.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSome games, those guys stepped up and played at a high level. And other games, unfortunately we weren\u2019t able to make plays at the point of attack and we gave up a few more explosive plays than we would like to,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m not going to sit here and say that\u2019s the reason why this, that or the fourth happened. But I will say whenever you lose All-Pro caliber players, it\u2019s going to affect you in some capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard also lamented the fact that Detroit\u2019s ability to create turnovers dipped as the season went on, and noted that losing Joseph\u2014someone who has created 20 interceptions in 52 starts\u2014certainly played a part.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Why are we giving up these explosives?\u2019 And you don\u2019t want to pinpoint it on a player, but in previous years that\u2019s been guys beating coverage and Kerby\u2019s been kind of the angel in the outfield where we weren\u2019t as exposed as we have been as of late,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n
The scheme continues to evolve<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t include it in the separate piece, but I think it\u2019s worth highlighting what Sheppard pointed to about the evolution of the scheme here in Detroit. The idea that it\u2019s always been the same since Aaron Glenn took over the defense is fundamentally not true. Sheppard offered a bit of a history lesson.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe good thing that I\u2019ve been involved in here is a kind of evolving system. Started out first year in a true 3-4 (defense), then we went to a hybrid kind of over front in 2022, then jumped back to kind of a blend of both worlds,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cSo, I\u2019ve been exposed and have a lot of knowledge in all types of systems and what we\u2019ve created here collectively as a system where we\u2019re able to adapt and adjust on the run, week-to-week. And I\u2019ll say again, I believe we\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp<\/p>\n
Kalif Raymond living on the edge<\/p>\n
Lions punt returner Kalif Raymond has fielded several punts this year inside his own 10-yard line, leading many to wonder why he isn\u2019t letting those kicks go for their chance at a touchback. I asked Fipp if he could provide any insight into this\u2014suggesting that maybe Raymond had earned the right as an All-Pro returner to make those decisions.<\/p>\n
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Fipp, instead, said that he would always rather his team lean on the side of aggression when it comes to punt returns because you never know how the ball is going to bounce when it is landing inside the 10-yard line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell you could always argue it. \u2018Well, it would\u2019ve been a touchback.\u2019 Well, maybe it wouldn\u2019t,\u201d Fipp said. \u201cMaybe they would\u2019ve pinned us on the one if you let it bounce [\u2026] You could always play that game. But yeah, I would prefer to put the ball in our hands and be aggressive than let\u2019s see which way the ball bounces and maybe today it\u2019ll bounce our way and tomorrow it won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sione Vaki\u2019s outstanding year<\/p>\n
Fipp was asked if there was anyone who has exceeded expectations this year, and the one player his singled out was Sione Vaki. Despite battling through multiple injuries this season, Fipp believes he\u2019s still having a special season.<\/p>\n
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\u201cVaki has really had a great year for us,\u201d Fipp said. \u201cAnd I mean he\u2019s just a unique athlete. Explosive, powerful, strong, he\u2019s an offender technically. I know he played both in college but his ability to make tackles and play in coverage is exceptional for that position of running back. And so, he\u2019s been a great player for us this season. I think he\u2019s had a really good year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, the Detroit Lions\u2019 three coordinators took the podium for the final time in the team\u2019s 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[1524,692,146,113,2506,7,14987,6282,14986,3220,147,6,1735],"class_list":{"0":"post-646649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-brian-branch","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-lions","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-john-morton","15":"tag-kalif-raymond","16":"tag-kelvin-sheppard","17":"tag-kerby-joseph","18":"tag-lions","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-sione-vaki"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115822366850305322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646649","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=646649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}