For around 20-25 minutes each, both Detroit Lions coordinators met with the local media for a sitdown at the 2026 NFL Combine. It was Drew Petzing\u2019s first official media scrum since being hired as offensive coordinator, and it was Kelvin Sheppard\u2019s first opportunity to share his thoughts on how his first season as defensive coordinator went. Here are my six takeaways from the media sessions, three from each.<\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent approach\u201d to self-scouting<\/p>\n
Self-scouting is nothing new. Every team does it this offseason, but Lions coach Dan Campbell said that so far this offseason, he\u2019s spent all of his time over with the defense, picking apart what went wrong. He mentioned that an overhaul isn\u2019t really needed, but rather, \u201cwe\u2019ve just got to tighten the screws on a few things.\u201d He\u2019ll get to the offense shortly.<\/p>\n
But Sheppard admitted that their process of scouting is a little different than previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what we normally do every year, but this year, we\u2019ve taken a different approach, so to say, with slowing that down,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve done is we\u2019re tearing off all the band-aids, trying to look through every crack, crevice to see where the good things were, the bad things were, and where can we improve as coaches, players in totality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard says the transparency with Campbell in the room is refreshing because it allows everyone to be transparent and real. There is no sugarcoating, there is no secrecy, there is no finger-pointing. There is only one focus: solutions. And while Sheppard was scant on providing details on how they plan on improving, it\u2019s clear they found some problem areas\u2026<\/p>\n
Third-and-10 defense struggles<\/p>\n
The first problem Sheppard talked about was the team\u2019s immense struggles on third-and-10+. The Lions gave up conversions on 28.8% of third-and-10 or more, the third-highest mark in football. But on third-and-9 or less, the Lions allowed a conversion rate of 42.5%, the seventh-lowest rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were outstanding on third down, but it was actually third-and-10 plus is like, why are we in the bottom tier in the league in that category?\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we executing? And then you turn on the tape and it\u2019s very eye-opening to what\u2019s happening. It sounds easy, but it is. It\u2019s simple solutions, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sheppard believe his play-calling was relatively good on third-and-long, but he takes ownership in the fact that he didn\u2019t offer his players enough information to play good situational football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are certain things that I obviously need to tag on calls, reminders given, things we need to emphasize in the offseason in terms of situational awareness with how aggressive we play,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n
Along the same lines, Sheppard focused on explosive plays as another problem area from last year. By the Lions\u2019 measures\u2014which is 12 yards on a running play and 17 on a pass play\u2014Detroit gave up 105 explosive plays. Sheppard not only remembered the exact number, but he knew the split between passing plays (82) and running plays (23).<\/p>\n
Breaking down the explosive plays was the first thing they watched, but it\u2019s also going to be something they continue to watch all offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first thing we started self-scout with, and there was overlap because you go to then doing a self-scout and we\u2019re gonna watch it again,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cAnd when the players come in Phase Two, Phase Three, guess what? I got 105 plays, and we gonna watch them again, and when we get to training camp and we need general reminders and subtle reminders of what to do in certain situations, we gonna watch them again.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the problem with those plays, Sheppard estimated 30-40 percent of those explosive plays had no business happening. And, again, he took blame for not being detailed enough in his coaching, but said the team remained close in most of those situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s subtle things. It\u2019s not like a mass overhaul of we were totally out of the park, out of the realm of comprehension of what we were supposed to be doing,\u201d Sheppard said.<\/p>\n
Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t expect a ton of 13 personnel in Detroit<\/p>\n
This observation comes actually more from Campbell\u2019s press conference, where he said this about Petzing and his time with the Cardinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve used a lot of heavy sets lately, but that\u2019s where their roster has gone. That\u2019s not something that I foresee us being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petzing reiterated that their style will remain fluid depending on their roster, and that can change midseason, if necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our best 11 on the field. That can look a million different ways. And, as you just talked about, that can change as the season goes, that can change as the offseason goes,\u201d Petzing said.<\/p>\n
Not pounding the table for \u201chis\u201d guys<\/p>\n
I asked Petzing how much influence he is having over the player acquisition portion of the offseason. After all, it\u2019s his offense, and I imagine he has a bunch of ideas about the type of personnel he wants to operate his vision.<\/p>\n
And while Petzing said he certainly offers thoughts when asked, he has a strong level of trust in general manager Brad Holmes getting him all the talent he needs. His focus, rather, is on making sure the players he has reach their full potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to voice my opinion and we\u2019re going to be involved in those conversations, but those guys spend so much time making sure that we\u2019re bringing in the right people, the right culture fit, the right scheme fit. I see my job more as once they\u2019re here, making sure that I\u2019m, as we talked about, I\u2019ve got to make sure they hit their ceiling. That\u2019s my number one job as a coordinator,\u201d Petzing said.<\/p>\n
As for how those conversations with Holmes and company are going, Petzing feels like the collaboration in Detroit is among the best he\u2019s seen.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Collaboration) a buzzword around here for the right reasons. It\u2019s important to our process and how we want to do things, and ultimately, to get to that right answer in everything we do,\u201d Petzing said.<\/p>\n
Efficiency is a moving target<\/p>\n
In a moment where I clearly saw the overlap with Dan Campbell, Petzing was asked about how the team can stay efficient. And Petzing\u2019s answer reminded me of Campbell\u2019s very first press conference where he emphasized that the team may throw the ball 50 times one game and run it 50 times another, if that\u2019s what that week\u2019s game plan called for.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Petzing said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are games where I\u2019ve gone into the game and said, \u201cHey, we gotta stay on schedule, move the chains, possess the ball,\u201d because that\u2019s the best way for us to win. There are other games where I\u2019ve said, \u201cHey, we need to generate a ton of explosive plays, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to score points in this game, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to win the game.\u201d I think if you\u2019re going to be dynamic as a team, as an offense, you can\u2019t lock yourself into \u201cthis is the only way to be efficient,\u201d because there are going to be weeks and matchups where, hey, we may need to pivot or go a different direction or do things in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n
I can see why Campbell wanted him to be his next offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For around 20-25 minutes each, both Detroit Lions coordinators met with the local media for a sitdown at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[153,1889,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-775451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-news","9":"tag-detroit-lions-quotes","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116131462215814366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775451","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=775451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}