LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOHN MORTON QUOTE SHEET
December 11, 2025
Opening Statement: “Excited about this game. I’ll tell you man, I mean these are the matchups you live for. When I was talking to the offense yesterday, in a lot of their categories they’re tops in the defense in a lot of categories and then we’re right next to them. We’re in the tops of all those categories too. So, it’s going to be a fun matchup. Accept the challenge. It’s going to be fun going back to L.A. – I mean I lived there for half my life. It’s going to be fun. Always love going against (Rams Head Coach Sean) McVay and those guys. They do a really good job. (Rams Defensive Coordinator Chris) Shula’s doing an unbelievable job. I mean every defensive coordinator that comes there, they’ve got to learn – it’s (Eagles Defensive Coordinator) Vic Fangio’s defense basically. And those guys get after it. Do a good job up front causing havoc, so that’ll be the challenge up front for those guys. They do a really good job in the scheme of things in the backend. But they apply pressure. They apply pressure, cause a lot of turnovers, we protect the ball. It’s like I said, a lot of the categories we were like one and two so it’s going to be a cool matchup. Looking forward to it.”
On how he goes about breaking down the Rams defense and starting a gameplan: “Yeah, so we’ve got to attack them just like we have been doing all year. I mean we’ve got great players – been saying it all year. Guys have stepped up and so we’ll attack. That’s what we’re going to do. Run and pass, we’re going to get after them. That’s what we need to do. We need to score points. We understand that and we’ll do that. We’ve been doing a good job with that – scoring points. We’ve got to do a good job. We’ve got to be manageable – we can’t have any of these pre-snap penalties, can’t do that against this team. Can’t be behind that eight ball. We’ve got to be third-and-short and -medium. Got to be able to do that. Last game we – I call it CFL football. It’s first, second, first, second, first, second. We didn’t have a lot of third downs. So, that’s the way we’ve got to play. Can’t get behind the chains, it’ll be tough. Might be a boring game, might be a dink-and-dump game. And we just take what the defense gives us, be smart just like we have been all year and we’ll be just fine.”
On what it has been like watching Lions QB Jared Goff handle the changes of this season while still maintaining a high level of performance: “I mean it’s awesome. I mean he’s a true professional. It’s a good thing he’s played for what, 10 years now? He’s seen a lot of ball. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t blink. I mean there’s times where he’s getting his butt kicked, he just gets right back up. That’s one of his strengths, he’s mentally tough. And his preparation is the key to our success, just like everybody. I mean our guys, they do a great job, our coaches do a great job preparing everybody. But when you’ve got a guy like that, it’s pretty special. And when things don’t go right and through his preparation, he sees certain things and gets to it just like he did a couple weeks ago. And it’s helped us. It’s helped us a few times. But run and pass, he always gets us in the right play. That just takes a lot off our plate when you’ve got a guy like that. And then we communicate all throughout the whole week. Every day we’re communicating. We watch film, we talk me and him and then I communicate with (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and everything. So, it’s just been awesome. I can’t say enough about him, how he’s playing.”
On if Lions QB Jared Goff’s mental fortitude is higher than any quarterback he has seen: “Yeah, I mean he’s up there. I’ve been with (former NFL QB) Drew Brees who is very intelligent. He’s up there. That’s pretty cool. But all the top quarterbacks are like that. You can see it where you can do a lot. When you’ve got a guy like that, just makes it a lot more simpler.”
On if there are lessons learned from game tape against other defenses earlier this season that can help the offense be more efficient this week: “Yeah. I mean, well it’s different personnel. I mean they’re a young front, but man do they get after it. I mean they’re violent. So, we have to match that intensity, which we will. Our effort and our intensity has been great all year. That’s why I love the matchup. This is like a heavyweight fight. It’s going to be great.”
On what he thinks of how Lions OL Miles Frazier played in his first game: “Not bad. I mean he played like a rookie, but not bad. I mean there’s a lot of things he has to clean up technique-wise, but I was encouraged. I mean that’s going in there right away basically. He’s still got to work on a lot of things. So, he’s a rookie. But I do, I think the future’s bright with him. I really do.”
On what he was most encouraged by in Lions OL Miles Frazier’s first game performance: “I like his size. I like how he moves. He’s a powerful guy. We saw that on tape at LSU and we liked him a lot. And we were shocked that he fell where he was at. But he’s a rookie, he’s got to get – a few years in the weight room is going to help him. And the same thing again, the more he plays, the better he’s going to get just like everybody else. But it was good to get him in there. It was good.”
On what challenge is presented to him and the coaching staff with the rotation at left guard between Lions OL Miles Frazier and Lions OL Trystan Colon: “Don’t blink. You just call your plays. Don’t blink at all, just like we have been. We’ve had a different center in, we’ve had different guards in, different tackles in. We don’t blink. The tackle area is kind of different. Sometimes you’ve got to protect that because that’s important. But no, we just call our stuff.”
On what the challenges are at tight end with injuries impacting depth at the position: “Well I think when you get a veteran tight end in here that’s played, that helps. A rookie or a young guy, that’s not going to work real fast. And if he has to play, we put him in spots where we think he’ll have success. We’re not going to ask him to do something that he can’t because I don’t even know some of these guys. I just found out the one tight end’s from Western Michigan. I was kind of happy about that. I didn’t even know that, no one told me. By the way, they won the bowl game, that was pretty good – or championship. We’re not going to ask someone to do something that they can’t when we get new guys in here. It’s hard to learn this offense in the beginning, so you’ve just got to give them a little bit at a time here. Here are your packages, here’s your plays, just learn that. That’s all you’ve got to do.”
On if changes to the depth at tight end changes personnel groupings and what he wants to do since the new tight ends are not as caught up on the playbook: “Not in the passing game, no. I mean you’ve kind of seen, we run a lot of different personnel groupings. (Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs) Gibby’s been involved, which is – he’s done exceptionally well. I mean I can’t say enough about him. But yeah, I mean we’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do. If it’s a certain concept and we’ve got to have this guy here and that guy there, we have to create it. That’s what you do. I’m not going to ask someone to do something that they can’t. If we think the ball is going in a certain spot, that guy is probably going to be there that’s more reliable. But those guys have been awesome. We played a bunch of different guys. I mean (Lions WR Isaac) TeSlaa stepped up a little bit last week. He just keeps getting better and better. So excited about him. And (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs, I can’t say enough. And (Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint and (Lions WR Jameson Williams) Jamo. I mean these guys are just blossoming and it’s really cool to see at the right moment. So, as we get in this push right here, we’re going to need all those guys. And then (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf will come – hopefully Leaf will come back and that’s going to be a good thing.”
On how Lions TE Shane Zylstra can help the offense when he returns: “Yeah, he’s played, he’s done well. He’s more of a receiving tight end, that helps. It’s been missing ever since (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta’s been gone. So, he helps in that aspect.”
On what kind of challenge Rams ILB Nate Landman poses: “Yeah, he’s a good player. I’ll say this, he does a really good – you know how (Lions LB Jack) Campbell likes punching the ball out? This guy does the same thing. They’re almost pretty similar. But he’s the captain of that defense, he gets guys lined up. It was a good addition for those guys. He’s a really good player. But we’ve got to be aware of him because of that.”
On where he sees the use of 20- and 21-packages going and the team’s ability to maximize those packages to their full potential: “Well I guess you’ll have to see. I mean you put your best players out there. That’s the beauty, I just said all these guys. And it’s based on kind of what they do, ‘Alright, let’s do this. Alright, let’s make sure we get this.’ The more these guys play, the more you’re like, ‘Oh man, he can do that.’ Now, OTAs, training camp, we had (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs everywhere running all these different types of routes. And you’ve got to go do that and it was like, ‘OK, he can do this, he can do that.’ And then it’s like, ‘Oh, well he can probably do everything.’ That’s how you figure things out. You use the offseason for those types of things. You kind of experiment with things and see how they are and that’s the cool thing, going in the laboratory and kind of figuring that out.”
On if there is a reason why he did not initially use a 21-personnel package as much in the first games of the season: “Yeah, I mean it was in there. But we had (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta. I mean he was rolling. And then you’ve got (Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown) Saint, you’ve got (Lions WR Jameson Williams) Jamo and it just depends on what the defense is doing, what package is what we need.”
LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR KELVIN SHEPPARD QUOTE SHEET
December 11, 2025
Opening Statement: “Alright, so just recapping off of last week’s game against Dallas. Obviously, we came away with a win, which is kind of the ultimate goal. But kind of wanted to hone in on some things that the guys went out there and emphasized going into that game and just changing kind of the trajectory of how we’ve been performing as a defense the last month. There were key areas we’ve been hitting on, not just in the media but the same thing with the players as far as getting pressure on the quarterback, red zone performance, when teams get down there, limiting points. Third down, so on and so forth. And I think just as a collective unit, I told those guys, that was rush and coverage marrying each other. Because sometimes the coverage wasn’t so good, but the rush got home. Sometimes the rush wasn’t so good, but the coverage was there, so on and so forth. Still room for improvement, but in the red zone was able to net 33 percent, one-for-three. And then the one they did get was unfortunate because it kind of had been our Achilles heel this year are the fourth-down stops. That was a fourth-and-5 critical one there to (Cowboys WR George) Pickens that they were able to hit and convert. This should have never happened. And again, I challenged the guys. We’ve got at the point of attack, we can’t go out there and play for you. You’ve got to make those plays in those situations. Just credit to the guys stopping the run in the light box, knowing the passing attack that we were facing. I thought the guys did an outstanding job. They had been doing a good job keeping teams off balance in that regard, and we netted a 3.8 there. And then the turnovers. Kind of the equalizer when you hit December, January football. Whenever you’re plus-three in the game, your chances of winning are somewhere in the 90 percentiles, and we were able to go out and do that. But still, things to improve. Still too many explosive plays in the pass game. They didn’t have one explosive run, but they walked away with eight explosive plays by the way we charted, and they all were in the pass game. And 50 percent of those had nothing to do with anything other than understanding your leverage and the details within the coverage. So those are things I know (Lions Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs) Deshea (Townsend)’s been working hard with those guys on. Just when you’re tired, when you’re fatigued, you’ve got to lock in one more time and remember what my leverage is, what are the details that we asked for within those coverages and go out and execute those things. And then can’t allow that amount of points. We definitely want to limit points. You can’t give up 30 points and expect to win in the realm in this version of the season that we’re walking into. So, those are major things we’re going to emphasize this week as far as the explosive pass game and limiting points as a defense.”
On the challenge of limiting an explosive offense like the Rams: “Hall of Fame quarterback in (Rams QB) Matthew (Stafford), he was a teammate of mine, have the utmost respect. I really do, man. To be playing at the level that he’s playing at his age is pretty remarkable. I mean he does – it’s not too shabby, the guys that he’s throwing the balls to, either. He has two number ones over there in (Rams WR) Puka (Nacua) and (Rams WR) Davante (Adams), we recognize that. And he does a good job of giving those guys 50-50 opportunities in my opinion. Those guys are covered up on a lot of those plays you see that you’re talking about that travels further than 20 yards. And he allows his guys an opportunity to go over and make a play, and they do that for the most part. And that stands out on tape to us, and we’ve addressed it, we’ve talked about it. But now it’s all about going out and executing. You can always do so much schematically as a coach, because they also have a pretty good running attack, I don’t think they get enough credit. And (Rams Head Coach) Sean (McVay) does a great job with the design of his offense. Brilliant, brilliant coach in my opinion just the way he keeps you off balance as far as he makes everything look the same. It’s what every coach tries to do now in the modern day. But some people say it and some people do it, and he’s one of the coaches that actually does it, as far as making it all look the same no matter the personnel grouping. Some people say it’s a simplistic offense, but when you start to incorporate the amount of turbo motion, the volume that they do it at in the run and pass game, it can become challenging. But we just have to be detailed with our rules this week, understanding when people move, how that affects your coverage wise and run-fit wise.”
On what he thinks Rams QB Matthew Stafford does successfully as far as limiting turnovers and how to replicate the turnovers he has had: “No, I don’t try to go chase it and do exactly – like, you see a good performance against him, we’re not going to take that exact gameplan and try to implement it. But I think turnovers come down, for the most part, it’s will and want to, and violently and aggressively attacking the football. You look around the League right now, the thing that’s up ticked in the last two years when you talk about turnovers – the interceptions, you know I got it. The sack fumbles, got it. But it’s the punch attempts on the football that you’re seeing. I want to credit their defense, too. I’m still a fan of football, so I do watch some of these games. We’ve got to combat not only what they do offensively as protecting the ball, but they do a pretty good job defensively as far as generating takeaways. They have a (Lions LB) Jack Campbell of their own right over there that punches at the ball a lot in their middle linebacker. So, just understanding, we’re not just combatting their offense but also the way their defense plays and try to generate takeaways.”
On what he remembers about practicing against Rams QB Matthew Stafford as a linebacker: “I mean, I faced him all the way dating back LSU versus Georgia. Down there between hedges, all the way to the League, to being his teammate. And you still see it on tape. I mean, I was just watching tape on him, and I saw him make a linebacker drift three yards and just put it right there behind his ear and kind of wink. But just the thing is, I tell the guys in zone coverage, don’t trust his eyes. Because he’s going to lie to you. Do not trust his eyes. And then you try to train people, ‘Well read the front shoulder tip.’ And then I had some guys say, ‘Well coach, his shoulder tip was over there, and he threw it over there, so what do I read?’ So just understanding when you’re in zone, just understanding your landmarks and details within your landmarks. It is a little different because you do train zone defenders melt off the quarterback, the front should trip’s not going to lie to you. Well, he goes against all that. All that coaching that you do, all that guru stuff we’ve been talking all season, you can throw that out the window this week. Just be detailed within what we do and not let them control anything. Because I think they get into games and they jump on people, and they like to control the situation a lot, which is OK. That’s what everybody wants to do. So, just understanding that and understanding who we’re facing.”
On Rams WR Davante Adams and how to coach the defensive points of emphasis: “It starts with coaching. It starts with coaching, trying to put players in optimal position, that’s number one. And then at the end of the day it comes down to the player remembering the coaching that you’ve been trained and prepped for, and going out and executing that. Fundamental details. You see a lot of guys hopping, reaching. Now that sounds good, me standing up here saying it, he’d probably have my ass hopping and reaching, too. But just understanding, where’s my help? What has been the coaching detail that week? And not on the first play of the game, it’s when you’re in the third quarter and you’ve accumulated 42 reps, 43 reps, and the game’s weighing on you a little bit, and that’s the critical stop we need. In that moment, you have to be great in your detail, technique, footwork, align and assignment. Those things. So, that’s what I’m honing in on. I see what our guys can do when we’re on point. I just try to kind of hone in on them. It’s going the be the third and fourth quarters. This game’s going to come down to the third and fourth quarter and who’s going to make that play, or who’s not going to make that play, I firmly believe that. So, if that moment arises, just trusting the technique that (Lions Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs) Deshea (Townsend) is giving them, trusting the plan that I’ve put in place, and let’s go out and make it happen.”
On how hard it is to replace Lions DB Brian Branch: “I just talked to BB the other day. First and foremost, absolutely devastated for the kid. He’s one of the best, best guys and players I’ve been around, man. And I’m not talking talent-wise, I’m just talking about his mentality, the way he attacks every day. I hate to see that happen. But he’ll bounce back even stronger, I told him that. And I told him I truly believe that I’m not just saying that. So, we’re going to miss BB, man. Whenever you just take away a player of that caliber, you’re going to miss him. But I want to credit the guys that stepped in, stepped up. (Lions DB) Avonte Maddox, a local Detroit kid, played absolutely lights out. Like, you take away the jersey number, you take away all that stuff, and you show me that performance from the safety position, that is winning football, and we can win with that type of performance. Now, it’s going to take a collective effort, it’s all hands on deck as it has been all year. It’s no different, it’s just a manner of guys stepping up to the occasion and seizing the moment. But we don’t – I don’t see us changing anything that we do schematically really. Having trusted guys like Avonte allows me to do that, so I do want to give him a lot of love and credit here. Because I know the first thing people are saying, ‘Are you going to have to change up the way you play because BB kind of – BB used to do this, BB used to do that.’ Now, it’s the next man up. And I hope that Avonte’s hearing this interview right now, and guys doubting or asking if I got to change my scheme, and him going out and proving why I don’t.”
On what he likes about the addition of Lions S Jalen Mills: “LSU guy. But ultimate competitor, seriously, ultimate competitor, and he’s ready to roll. It’s a guy that’s been playing football, that’s the thing that I like about it. (Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager) Brad (Holmes) did a good job finding a guy, seeing where we were at, that’s played football. Because it’s easy to bring in a vet, but if he’s been on the couch all year, that’s kind of hard to kind of get him acclimated. Now it’s just about from the neck up with Jalen, and he knows coverages. Everybody’s played Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 4, so on and so forth. It’s just about terminology now and getting him up to speed with that terminology and then getting him out on the grass out here and seeing how he moves and kind of acclimates into what we do here. But I love the addition.”
On the Rams utilizing 13-personnel and what he sees from that package from a base defense standpoint: “It’s kind of good that you said that about us playing base, because you guys see how we view base defense here. I firmly think that’s how (Rams Head Coach) Sean (McVay) views 13-personnel from an offensive perspective. He thinks that he can dictate to you, and quite frankly you can in certain instances if you don’t see it a lot. Good thing we caught him on the backend, I see that it is what he does and who he is, so I can broaden what I do. But a lot of times in this League, 13-personnel, you don’t see it, 21-personnel, you don’t really see it, so you don’t practice it a lot. You don’t have a big menu for it, and Sean knows that. So, he gets you in it and he’s going to dictate off of what you put out there. Because they can make that 13 – I know it says 13-personnel, but you look at some of those plays, it’s playing like 11-personnel. It’s playing like 12-personnel. So, he can morph that 13 into anything he wants depending on what you put out there. I think it’s a brilliant thing, I do. I give this man a lot of credit, man, I do. Because he’s kind of in my mind, what I am as a defensive coach. He wants to have the pen last, and he’s going to force you into things and understand once I force you into those things, it’s either here or here, (Rams QB Matthew) Matt (Stafford). I’m going to force this defense into this, and it’s either here or here, Matt. So, I credit them. Brilliant, brilliant coaches doing a damn good job over there.”
On how LSU did against Rams QB Matthew Stafford in college when he was at Georgia: “We beat them once, we beat them – they beat the brakes off of us at LSU in ’09 when they had Knowshon Moreno, A.J. Green. We came back between the hedges the next year and beat them in a close game. But they beat the brakes off of us in ’09, I think that was, or ’08.”
LIONS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR DAVE FIPP QUOTE SHEET
December 11, 2025
On the boost that Lions WR Tom Kennedy has given the team in the return game and the problem of figuring out how to use Lions WR Kalif Raymond as well now that he is returning to practice: “Yeah, great problem to have. Obviously number one I would say this, I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am for Tom Kennedy. I mean there’s nobody who deserves the attention and the recognition more than him in this building. I mean a guy who’s just worked his tail off every single day the whole time he’s been here. Never, ever complained about the reps he’s getting, the opportunity he’s getting. Whether he knows he can do something better than maybe some other guy who’s getting his shot before him. And then for him to get the opportunity and then go out there and make the most of it, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit. Obviously there was a bunch of guys blocking for him who were competing also. But I always say that in the return game, it starts with the returner and the great returners make great blockers. And the better that guy does with the ball in his hands, the better those blockers end up doing. And all of those guys blocking for a good returner know that. And then the bad returners, they say, ‘Well, there’s no holes and the blocking’s not very good.’ And it’s like well, be careful because some of that might be because of you. But anyway, the other thing that I – I mean, it’s just a great thing about this game in general. I think – my dad used to always tell me when I was a kid. He would say – he flew in the military and was a pilot in the Vietnam era and he said the one thing the military could not measure or figure out – they spend a lot of money training pilots, well they obviously want to train the pilots who are going to be good pilots and make it through and not waste their money on guys who fall out and don’t make it. So, he said they would put a lot of money into testing and trying to evaluate who were going to be good pilots and then bad pilots. And so, they would do all kinds of tests – mental tests, whatever, physical tests with these guys. And he would always tell me, he said, ‘Man, the one thing they have not figured out how to measure is what’s in your heart and what’s in your mind.’ And that’s the greatest thing about this game too, you just can’t measure that stuff. And when it comes out like it did for him on that game, it’s just incredible to watch. The power of the human spirit, a guy who wants to go make a play and just decides he’s not going to let this opportunity pass him by, you just can’t measure it. And sometimes a man is probably sitting there waiting for three years or whatever it is – four years – watching other people get turns and that just builds inside of somebody, and he gets the chance and he just lets it rip. So, it was awesome.”
On if Lions WR Tom Kennedy will stay as the kick returner and whether Lions WR Kalif Raymond will play for special teams when he is back: “At the end of the day I would say, yeah he’ll be back there on kickoff return. Obviously punt return’s tough because most of the time you can only put one guy back there, maybe you put two, something like that. But anyway, we’ll find out. I mean Kalif’s obviously an incredible player for us, so I would see him starting off as our punt returner and I would definitely see Tom Kennedy being part of the kick return game. But yeah, if we get (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf back, I would see him returning punts for sure. And that also helps balance Leaf’s load. I mean he plays a lot of offense for us. You guys asked me that question about (Cowboys WR KaVontae) Turpin. That does take something out of you when you’re playing a lot of reps. Now those guys can still turn it on and make a difference on any play, but that will help balance his workload too.”
On how he decides which side to deploy his kick returners: “Yeah, like that game if you look at it, I mean there’s a number of things going on. There is some chess to it, but at the end of the day they control where the ball goes. You could try to help manipulate it if you’re on kickoff return. I don’t know – like you may have noticed we had an extra guy lined up on one side. Sometimes they kick the ball to the extra guys, sometimes they kick the ball away from the extra guy, some teams may always kick away from the extra guy. Maybe you say we would rather kick to the extra guy and this returner because we don’t think he’s as good as the other guy. And we know that we’re kicking to an overloaded side, but we would rather put the ball in that guy’s hands. That’s possible too. So, there’s a lot to it. I mean obviously we had flipped those guys, they had flipped direction when they kicked, they kicked into the overload side – or the loaded side or the heavy side, they kicked away from it. So, at some point, there’s no telling. I mean you’ve got to have two good returners. It’s like having to – I said it to (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell), this is like having a great receiver. If you have one receiver, it’s an issue but you can cover that up pretty quick. Double team that guy, eliminate him, all that. If you have two, oh man, now it’s, ‘Who do we double?’ And then you’ve got a running back and now it’s like, ‘Well, we can’t just play shell coverage. We’ve got to get an extra guy in the box.’ Now these guys are singled up – they can only double one, not two. Now guys get one-on-ones, make plays, so a lot of good players helps.”
On if he thinks there will be an evolution of college scouting to put more of an emphasis on returners given the changes to the NFL return format: “Yeah, I mean to me – I think I said that before this season started. To me this is great because it’s going to put an emphasis on guys who can return the ball. I think it’s going to push the top of the roster to be a part of that too. You’re no longer going to say, ‘Well, that’s running back number two, he shouldn’t really be doing that.’ You’re going to be like, ‘Running back two should be doing that.’ Or receiver number three or whatever it is. But I think it’ll also force, eventually, some of these guys who are at the top of the roster to start playing. I mean it makes an immediate impact, that’s a huge difference. I mean if you said to an offender, ‘On this play you’re going to get a chance to have a 40-yard return or a 30-yard run. Who do you want out there for it?’ Well, we want our best player out there for it, probably. So, at some point, I think teams will start to say that more and more. I think the other thing that probably factors into that – and I don’t know this yet, but after this year we’ll have a pretty good gauge on it – what’s the injury data say for the guy returning the ball. How many injuries at that position, what kind of exposure to risk does that put them at? And at least you’ll have some more factual information, not just kind of opinions.”
On Lions WR Jameson Williams wanting to be a returner: “Yeah. He wants to do it. There’s a bunch of guys who want to do it.”
On if there is a difference in skillset between the guys excelling in this system as a returner versus the old style where everybody lined up in the same places: “Yeah, I do think on this play it’s a little bit more like a punt returner and the old play was a little bit different just run-game wise. Probably a little bit more like your bigger, downhill back. But this play – I mean in both plays, but ultimately if you’ve got a guy who can create space and open up gaps and manipulate defenders, that’s really what you want playing this play here, guys who can move the coverage and open up and create space on their own because it’s hard. You’re in some tight quarters to begin with on the play.”
On what he sees in Lions OL Miles Frazier and how he is handling his responsibility on special teams: “So he played a little bit for us on field goal, and I thought he did a nice job. So, we’ll just continue to see where he goes from there. Obviously I would start by saying on the field goal, I mean really I need to do a better job with that whole play in general. We’ve had some of the low trajectory kicks that have not been good enough with (Lions K Jake) Bates. We’ve talked about that. Now in the last game, we have leakage in our protection. But I would say, in my opinion, honestly it can’t look like that and I can’t sit here and say I’ve done well enough. So, I have to do a better job with these guys – all of them – in the protection game, for sure. So yeah, we’ve got to get that fixed going into this game.”
On why Lions OL Tate Ratledge is put on the left side during field goal protection when he plays at right guard: “One thing actually that would counter that question, I think there’s a lot that goes into that. Some of it is we’ve got (Lions T Penei) Sewell who’s played on the right side his whole career. And so, moving him is – well, let’s not move him. Now, that being said, a lot of times on field goal protection a right guard or a right tackle ends up playing on the left side. This sounds weird but a right guard or right tackle usually has his right foot back. Well on field goal protection, the guys on the left side have their inside foot back, so that would actually be his right foot back. So, a lot of guys on the offensive line – right side players feel more comfortable playing the left side of field goal in protection. But that’s really not totally why we have him there on that side. Sewell’s been the right side for us for a long time, has done a great job. Then you could also say we put the ball on the left hash on PATs, so most of the rushes come from the right-hand side. So, we have a little bit better group, probably, on that side than we do on the left side. So, there’s a lot of different reasons why you do it. But yeah.”
On if it is kicker preference for where the ball is put on the hash for PATs: “Yeah, kicker preference, what he does best. Yeah, for sure. Hash on a PAT, I mean if you get a choice, then we could put it on the hash. He either kicks the best on or feels the best kicking on or statistically does the best.”
On if he has ever gone to Lions LB Jack Campbell and told him they would sit him during special teams snaps: “He played punt for us the first couple of years and he loved playing punt. And we tried to get him off at the beginning – we eventually did, obviously. But we tried to get him off and he was like, ‘I’m not coming off of punt. I love playing punt. It’s the first play, gets me warmed up, I get to run down and then cover the punt and then play on defense.’ And he was adamant about it. And then obviously this year we got him playing kickoff – or halfway through the season we put him out there and he’s done a great job. He’s the same way. I mean I think all the great players, they don’t care what down it is, they don’t care what the score is, they just want to play. They want to go out there and play and contribute, they want to compete, they love competing in different phases, different areas, showing different skillset. I mean the ultimate competitors. The best that I’ve ever been around are like that. You’ve got to pull them off the field. And the more you play them, the more they want to play. And he’s certainly like that. I mean he’s impressive. He’s obviously done a great job at linebacker, but he’s just an incredible person. I can’t tell you just what a team player he is.”
On what Lions EDGE Tyrus Wheat is doing so well on special teams to get as many snaps as he has: “So to start off, we’ve kicked the ball a little bit more to the right than the left. And he’s always been on the right-hand side, so that helps him, puts him where the ball is a little bit more often. That being said, he does a great job of getting off blocks, staying in his area, kind of getting off blocks, finding the football and making plays. I always say to these guys, the bottom line in this business is you’ve got to make plays. If you want to keep your job or you want to play in this League for a long time, it’s going to come down to the stat sheet. How many tackles you’ve got, how many assists you’ve got, how many catches you’ve got, how many touchdowns you score, what’s your QBR rating. I mean that stuff all matters. And if you’re one of those guys who goes out there and has played a lot of plays in coverage – kickoff or punt on special teams – and you don’t have a lot of production or tackles to show it, it’s going to get tough for you. It’s also tough for all the guys next to you because you’re putting the pressure on those guys to make plays. And I think at the end of the day, the great defenders, the great guys in coverage on special teams, they play with vision on the football and they see the ball all the time. And they’re (seeing) all the blocks and everything in front of them and they understand angles and where the blockers are and the bodies are. But angles and space and the ball carrier and they can dissect all that stuff. And they can play all the blockers with their peripheral vision and keep their eyes on the ball carrier all the time. The great tacklers keep their eyes on the ball and go finish, find a way to get there.”
