Coordinator recap: Sheppard's message to Branch, preparing for Bucs' blitzes, Lovett on returns, plans at safety and more

Allen Park — Detroit Lions coordinators Kelvin Sheppard, John Morton and Dave Fipp met with the media on Friday. Here are the highlights from those conversations.

● Sheppard will be the first to tell you he could be a hothead as a player, especially while in college and the early stages of his pro career. Learning to control his emotions on the field was a process, and because he’s been in that position, it’s easy for him to empathize with safety Brian Branch.

Branch has had a handful of emotional outbursts in his three seasons with the Lions, and he’s paying a steep price for the latest, earning a one-game suspension for slapping Kansas City receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster after last Sunday’s matchup, sparking a brief scuffle as teammates fought to separate and restrain the two players.

Sheppard said he had older teammates, such as Dwayne Bowe, Reggie Wayne, Ali Highsmith and Robert Mathis, constantly in his ear about how emotional outbursts could negatively affect both the team and his reputation. Now, Sheppard is trying to convey the same thing to his pupil.

“At one point, I was a kind of toeing-the-line kind of player that played with that type of edge. But I told him you have to understand you have 60 minutes to be able to do whatever you want to do to another man, and kind of leave it right there.”

“Outside of the field, I mean (he’s) the most soft-spoken guy you’ll ever meet, the most (respectful) guy you’ll ever meet,” Sheppard said. “But those 30 seconds in that spotlight can change how people view you and how people see you. Always remember that in this profession, in life, one wrong decision could now peg you as a person that you’re nowhere near being.”

Sheppard said it’s difficult not having Branch around the building this week as he serves the suspension, but the coordinator is confident the defender will learn and grow from the situation.

● For the second straight week, Morton said the opposing defensive play-calling, in this case Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles, has been the cause of some lost sleep.

More than anything the Buccaneers do, it's Bowles’ relentless use of pressure packages that has Morton consuming extra film in preparation for Monday night.

“I always say if I could start all over being a coach, I’d probably be a defensive coach, so I could just dial up anything I want at any time,” Morton quipped. “That’s basically what he’s doing. Listen, we have to prepare for everything. Protection-wise, that’s the biggest thing. You give them all the looks that you can give, especially the things that they’re doing this year. You’ve already played them three times, you go back there, and you look at those games. You look at games of other teams that are similar to us, similar to the quarterback. You look at everything.”

Morton praised the work of offensive line coach Hank Fraley in the preparation process. Morton said Fraley is the best he’s been around, in terms of piecing together a weekly protection plan.

Morton noted that you have to be prepared, at all times, to get rid of the ball quickly when facing a Bowles’ defense. Thankfully for Morton, quarterback Jared Goff has thrived when being attacked by extra rushers this year.

“You guys have already seen it this year,” Morton said. “If he sees something, we get to our blitz check, and he can see everything. Listen, he’s a veteran guy. And he studies, man. This guy works his butt off. He’s like a coach, and it’s really cool when you’ve got a guy — the trigger, he’s like that. It makes it so much easier.”

● Late against Kansas City, the Lions inserted rookie receiver Dominic Lovett in at kick returner. I asked Fipp about the thought process behind the move.

He said it was a two-fold decision. First, the team wanted to get an in-game evaluation on something they’d been thinking about all season, and second, they were desperate for a spark.

“We had seen Craig (Reynolds) return the ball a bunch,” Fipp said. “We’ve kind of been wanting to see Lovett back there, at some point. We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to do it. And at that point of the game, it’s like, ‘Hey, what the heck, man?’ If we can break one, put somebody else different back there, see what he can do.

“That helps us kind of going forward, too,” Fipp continued. “It’s like, do we really want to go into a game and commit to putting him back there deep and playing with him there? So, it was a little bit more of trying to get an evaluation on a player and a certain situation of the game. And I thought he did a nice job.”

Fipp said he wasn’t unhappy with Reynolds’ performance against the Chiefs, despite modest results with his five returns. The coordinator said there were larger issues with the entire group, plus he credited the Chiefs for covering the returns well.

● With Branch suspended and Kerby Joseph dealing with a nagging knee injury, the Lions added veteran cornerback Kendall Fuller to the roster this week. I asked Sheppard if he was leaning toward shifting Rock Ya-Sin to safety for the game against Tampa Bay, if only to have an experienced option at the communication-heavy position.

Sheppard strongly rejected that idea, highlighting some of the roster’s younger options he feels deserve a shot.

“Rock is playing at a good level, in my opinion, outside at the corner, and we don’t want to mess with that,” Sheppard said. Then, that’ll be disrespectful to the other guys who have been working their tails off on this roster. The Thomas Harpers, Loren Stricklands, the Erick Halletts of the world.

“All these guys that people have probably never heard of, I tell these guys, ‘It’s time to introduce yourself to not only the Detroit community but the NFL community,’” Sheppard said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for these guys. It’s a tremendous opportunity. I mean, this could be your one shot. …These guys have been working for this moment. They’ve been waiting on this moment.”

Harper is in a position to start in place of Branch. If Joseph can’t go or gets banged up against the Buccaneers, the Lions intend to turn to Hallett or Strickland, based on Sheppard’s comments. Strickland is currently on the practice squad after being waived early this week, but could easily be elevated for the contest.

● In another round of compliments for Jameson Williams’ blocking prowess, Morton offered a colorful description of the speedy receiver’s effort in those situations.

“You put our tape on, all the wideouts, but he’s like a kamikaze, man, going in there,” Morton said. “He’s like, ‘Bam, bam.’ He just bounces off guys. Receivers his size, they don’t do that. He’s tough, man. I mean, we’re not going to draft guys who are not tough. I just love what he’s doing. It was good to see what he did last week, man. It was awesome.”

● Since his promotion to coordinator, Sheppard said Goff has been coming into his office weekly to discuss some of the nuances of defensive play. And that flow of information goes both ways, with the quarterback providing tidbits Sheppard can utilize.

“He gives me nuggets, things that he sees because Dan (Campbell) makes sure we do competitive things still within the season, good-on-good,” Sheppard said. “So, he’ll come back and be like, ‘Shep, you shouldn’t (do this),’ or ‘If the quarterback sees this, you need to be careful because they’ll get to this.’

“Just having a quarterback like that, with that much detail, that much care to come up with the defensive coordinator every week, just to drop, whether that’s two minutes or 20 minutes, he’s done that with me this whole season, and it’s been beneficial,” Sheppard said. “I think we’re very compatible. We kind of bounce things off each other, and I do the same for him. So, it’s a great relationship.”

● After breaking the NFL record for net punting average a year ago, Jack Fox’s numbers are down a bit this season. However, a lot of that is situational, where the Lions have been punting from. He’s actually thriving based on where he’s operating on the field, including ranking second in the NFL with punts that end up inside the 20-yard line, all without having a single touchback this season.

“He’s been doing a great job punting the ball situationally,” Fipp said. “The irony of that would be when I first got here, you guys asked me what he could improve on the most, and I said, situational punting. He’s really come a long way with that.

“It’s difficult to do,” Fipp continued. “It takes the whole team. Obviously, it starts with the snap. Getting a good snap helps him be able to put the ball where he wants to. Hogan (Hatten)’s done a great job at helping him out, and then having gunners who can run down the field and get down there. (Isaac) TeSlaa, in the Cincinnati game, makes a great play and keeps that ball from going in the end zone. …So yeah, I think there’s a lot to go into it, but certainly Fox has done a great job.”

● Aidan Hutchinson has added a critical new weapon to his arsenal this season: Knocking the ball free from quarterbacks in the pocket. He leads the league with four forced fumbles, which doesn’t count the one that was wiped from the books by a penalty committed away from the ball by Branch.

Sheppard said Hutchinson’s development in that area isn’t an accident after the team spent all offseason emphasizing going after the ball.

“If you really dissect our tape, it’s all over the tape now, guys violently punching at the ball,” Sheppard said. “It was an emphasis, we talked about it back during OTAs, that carried through — the momentum carried through in training camp.”

Sheppard said Hutchinson was repeatedly reminded throughout the offseason that forcing a fumble not only counted as a sack, but had the potential to be a far more impactful play for the defense.

“It’s violent, it’s aggressive, and it’s the way we play,” Sheppard said. “I hope it continues to show up, and I hope it upticks as we progress in the season.”