Allen Park — Detroit Lions coordinators Dave Fipp, Kelvin Sheppard and Drew Petzing met with the media on Thursday. Here are some of the newsworthy items from those sessions.
How many is too many?
Through six games, Jahmyr Gibbs is leading the NFL with 166 touches, putting him on pace for the second-most in NFL history. Meanwhile, his backup, Sione Vaki has amassed 20 touches, including just one in two of the team’s past three games.
I asked Petzing how important it was to lean a little more heavily on Vaki in the coming weeks, just to take some of the strain off Gibbs, who made a rare appearance on the injury report this week, missing Wednesday’s practice with a shoulder issue. (Gibbs was back on Thursday).
“It’s a great question,” Petzing said. “I don’t know, I guess, is the easy answer. I want Vaki to have a big role. I want everybody to affect the offense and affect the game, but Jahmyr is a unique player and he changes the game in a way a lot of other guys can’t. So, it’s a fine line.”
Petzing acknowledged a part of the process is routinely checking in with the player on how much they feel they can handle.
“I think a big part of it is communicating with him and making sure that he feels like he can do it and he feels good,” Petzing said. “And if he doesn’t, we’re not going to continue to do it. But, I think it’s something you’re aware of, you manage. But, at the same time, in the game, week to week, you do what you need to do to win. And then we kind of package it and do it different as we go through it.”
The approach is reminiscent of how the Lions have treated Aidan Hutchinson, while he was logging the most snaps of any defensive lineman in the league a year ago.
Petzing was questioned whether Gibbs has ever asked for fewer touches.
“No, he probably wants more,” Petzing said.
No fly zone, for excuses
Sheppard was pleased with how the defense executed its three keys going into last Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers: Limiting outside receivers Matthew Golden and Christian Watson, shutting down the run and forcing at least one takeaway.
On the other side of the equation, Sheppard remains irked by how many explosive plays his defense is giving up.
Notably, three of those gains came on fourth-down snaps in the first half. I asked Sheppard is there was an overlapping theme.
“Those were three of the busts, if I’m being honest with you,” he said. “And the players know it, so it’s not like I’m saying anything that you guys don’t see. Pretty much everybody around the league runs that coverage, and they know who was supposed to be where they were supposed to be. The player(s) took accountability towards it and we’re moving onward and upward.”
I followed it up asking how much any number of variables the Lions are dealing with — including the re-introduction of Brian Branch, a young safety in Keith Abney playing his second game at the position, and a newly deployed cornerback rotation — are causing the busts.
Sheppard emphatically rejected the premise.
“We don’t go down that road,” Sheppard said. “Those are excuses and those are for losers. And if you start to go down that road, your role will diminish here. So, we don’t even travel down there.
“If you get an opportunity, I don’t care if you’ve never gotten a rep, if you’ve never gotten it in practice and we call you off the sideline because you’re the last man that we have,” Sheppard said. “You’re expected to go in there and play at the same level as the guy that’s taking every rep. So, with all due respect, I don’t even travel down that road.”
Lethal threat
The Vikings lead the NFL in both punt and kickoff return averages, in large part due to second-year return man Myles Price, who has the only punt return for a touchdown across the league this season.
“Yeah, man, this guy’s a really good player,” Fipp said. “We’ve gone against him a little bit here. He’s had some success against us. We have got to do a great job against him.
“He’s got a great feel for setting up blocks,” Fipp said. “He’s got a great feel for where space is. He can see the whole field. So, if they’re setting up a return to take it down the left side, let’s say, he’ll take it down the right side if it opens up and he’ll see it.”
It will be a good strength-on-strength matchup. The Lions rank fifth in punt return average allowed this season.
Price only fielded one punt against the Lions as a rookie in 2025, but popped off on kickoffs, averaging 32.8 yards on five tries in the first of two matchups between the NFC North rivals.
Negative runs
Detroit has had a strange ground game dichotomy, where they’re near the top of the league in explosive runs, but also near the top of the league in stuffed carries.
Petzing said there are a number of reasons for the negative runs, including scheme, poor matchups and pre-snap communication issues that lead to bad IDs.
Against Green Bay, where Packers defenders routinely found their way into the backfield on handoffs to Gibbs, Petzing said the biggest problems were ID related.
Penalty explanation
New return man DeAndre Carter was flagged for a rarely seen illegal double-team block on a kickoff against the Packers. For those not familiar with the rule, it strictly applies to the two return men.
Fipp explains:
“The bottom line is you can have nine guys or 10 guys up front, and any one of those guys who are lined up up front, in the setup zone, those guys can all double-team block,” Fipp said. “But the returner back deep. or if you put two of them (back), which we had there, none of those guys can be part of a double-team block.
“What happened to (Carter) on the play is Tay Martin blocked his guy, punched him and pushed him off him,” Fipp said. “So as DeAndre was going up to the second level, he saw this guy unblocked, or nobody was on him, and he was trying to go get to the one, but he ended up blocking this guy. Well, then as he’s blocking him, Tay comes back to finish him off. And so now we’re a part of an illegal double team. Yeah, it was unfortunate.”
Beyond the penalty, Fipp was pleased with what Carter brought to the table in his first game with the Lions.
Moore earning more
It’s been a slow start to second-round pick Derrick Moore’s career, but the rookie edge defender has started to pick up his play in recent weeks, earning more playing time.
“He came in early on and it's like, ‘I'm playing nine snaps, seven snaps,’” Sheppard said. “I told him, 'Just stick with it. Just trust the process here. You’ve got the best in the league coaching you, brother, in (defensive line coach) Kacy Rodgers. …I trust him, so you need to trust him.’
“I played under Kacy,” Sheppard said. “I know what he's coaching. I know, and I lean on his progression for a player. …I love where Derrick Moore's trajecting and he'll continue to progress, I believe.”
Moore played a season-high 20 snaps in each of the past two games. He had a key hit on quarterback Jacoby Brissett that caused an incompletion out the back of the end zone against Arizona, followed by a quick pressure Sunday against Green Bay that caused Jordan Love to hurry a deep shot off his back foot that was broken up by cornerback DJ Reed.
Sight for sore eyes
It will likely be a few weeks before the Lions determine how much safety Kerby Joseph will be able to contribute this season, but Sheppard is thrilled to see the former All-Pro back on the practice field this week after being sidelined for more than a year.
“I’ll kind of sound like a tape recorder right now from what, three, four weeks ago with (Branch) BB coming back, but it’s the same process,” Sheppard said. “He’s going to fight somebody for everything, like, ‘Kerby no, you’re not taking that rep. Back up’. He wants it all, and that’s the big thing with trusting our performance staff, (head athletic trainer) Mike Sundeen, (director of player health and performance) Brett Fischer, (head strength and conditioning) Josh Schuler and the strength staff.
“They’ve done a tremendous job getting this player back because a couple months ago everybody thought it was over,” Sheppard said. “That takes all hands on deck with the performance team, with the strength and conditioning team and preparing this player to be at the point that he’s at.”
I'm hoping that as the year progresses, Vaki can earn more touches to take some of the load off Jah. Small sample size, I know, but he's shown some ability with the ball in his hands as both runner and receiver. Maybe some 2 back sets?
Vaki's been on the roster for 3 years. If he was 'the guy' he'd have shown it by now. At best he was a hope coming out of college. This was such a glaring mistake by Brad Holmes, to let DMo walk, and to replace him with hope and a dance.
My word. This is large and obvious. If Jamyr goes down, even the threat of a running game is over.