Allen Park — These days, the Detroit Lions defense is a MASH unit. But there’s no time to cry over spilled milk during the NFL season. The unit still has to go out there on Sunday — or in the case of the past two weeks, Thursday — and put its 11 best on the field and play the game.
This week, against Green Bay, some of those 11 might be taking their first snaps for Detroit. The Lions added four defensive players this weekend, poaching veterans Kwon Alexander, Jonah Williams and Myles Adams off other teams’ practice squads while adding former All-Pro safety Jamal Adams to their practice squad.
And while the turnaround to get ready for a Thursday matchup might seem unrealistic, the Lions don’t really have a choice. So even though those players won’t be able to digest the entire playbook, there’s one thing defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn is stressing above all else to his new recruits.
“We can shrink the playbook down as much as we want, but it’s the way that you play that’s the most important," Glenn said. "Most of the guys that we bring in, they understand that and we try to make sure that we emphasize that as much as possible. …Here’s a saying that we say in our defense room, it’s not what we play, it’s how we play.
“If I can go in with four or five calls and they can play fast, they can play physical, they can play violent, that overcomes a lot of scheme,” Glenn continued. “You can have as much scheme as you want, but players make the scheme. Actually, players make the style of play better than the scheme if you think about it the right way and our guys do a good job of that.”
Still, the Lions are mitigating leaving too much to chance by specifically targeting players they know. Linebacker Kwon Alexander, signed off Denver’s practice squad, was with coach Dan Campbell and Glenn in New Orleans. Defensive lineman Jonah Williams was scouted by general manager Brad Holmes when the Rams added the defender as an undrafted free agent out of Weber State in 2020. And defensive tackle Myles Adams, who is coming over from Seattle’s practice squad, played at Rice when Detroit’s assistant defensive line coach Cam Davis was a graduate assistant at the program.
Davis and some of Detroit's other lower-level defensive assistant coaches are another key cog in the onboarding process. When the team acquired Za’Darius Smith in a trade earlier this month, it was Davis who spent extra hours working with the veteran pass rusher to accelerate his understanding of the scheme and his fit within it.
This week, Davis, Shaun Dion Hamilton, Jim O'Neil and David Corrao will be among those working overtime to ensure the newcomers are ready to go.
“Those guys are huge and it’s hard for me to actually put into words exactly what those guys mean to me and how they go about doing their business because there is a lot on their plate,” Glenn said. “I expect a lot from them and my job is to prep them and get them ready for the next opportunity that they’ll get if that’s going to be a true position coach or if that’s actually transitioning to a coordinator sometime.
“…They will grind with these guys as much as they can to get them to understand exactly what we’re doing,” Glenn said. “They know exactly the vision that I have on defense, and they coach it exactly like I see it. That’s a good thing. Once you have guys across the board that’s on the page, they know exactly what I’m looking for and they coach it to that point, all I can do is give those guys props because they do a hell of a job and I’m glad they’re on my side.”
Lions not worried about leak
Closing the book on running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ inadvertently posting some of the team’s protection calls on social media last week, Lions coach Dan Campbell emphatically dismissed having any concern about that information being made public during a Tuesday morning interview with 97.1-FM.
"I know what it is, but I’m like, you know what, we might as well just put everything out there,” Campbell told the radio station during a weekly interview. “I don’t really give a crap. I mean, if we’re gonna lose because of code words, then we’re not good enough anyway. So, I think we’ll just post the whole freaking playbook out there and every code word we’ve got. It doesn’t matter. It’s not gonna hurt us, it won’t affect us. It’s all good.”
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson echoed those sentiments, providing a specific example of an opponent recognizing a play call, but still not being able to stop the Lions.
“Listen, each week we like to try to keep guys off balance, teams off balance, opponents off balance, and we certainly don’t want them to know when a play is coming,” Johnson said. “But you look back at the first time we played the Packers this year. Third-and-5, it was our first third down of the game and we made a check, and you can see Kenny Clark giving that signal right there, which is usually universal for run.
“Well, we ran it, and we got 9 yards,” Johnson said. “So even if teams know what’s coming, it’s still challenging to stop us. That’s the mentality that we take. We don’t use those code words at the line of scrimmage a ton, but we’ll make any necessary adjustment we need to.”
Begging for a chance
Every week, both during practice and during pre-game warmups, Jameson Williams fields punts.
Watching him doing it during training camp the past two years, it often felt like an adventure, so I asked special teams coordinator Dave Fipp what kind of improvement he’s seen from the receiver in that role and whether the coach could ever see giving Williams the opportunity in the game.
“I could definitely see it,” Fipp said. “I would say, development, he’s come a long way. When he first came in here the catching ability was, just like a lot of guys, I mean, he played wideout and it needed some work, I’ll just say it that way, but he’s gotten much better.”
Fipp said it ever got to the point where the Lions would consider using Williams as a situational punt returner, and there were lingering concerns about his ability to field the ball cleanly, there are ways to build in added protection.
“I remember we had Jalen Reagor, who was an explosive returner when I was in Philly,” Fipp said. “He struggled catching the ball. …Every time he was back there, we tried to put a double team on both gunners and at least just get him started or keep him out of harm’s way, so that if he put the ball on the ground there wasn’t going to be anyone close by him and he could end up picking it back up and recovering it at worst-case scenario.”
It probably won’t surprise you to hear Williams has been pleading with Fipp for an opportunity to return one, along with another young Lions player.
“The one thing I love, there are two guys on this team that will beg to be back there all the time and I respect the heck out of them for it,” Fipp said. “It’s Terrion Arnold — he wants to go back there and touch the ball — and Jamo. They want to go back there and touch the ball, and it’s like, I mean I love it. It doesn’t mean they’re going to get that, but I love the fact that they want to do it because there are some other players that probably are hoping that their number’s not called.”
Success built around the backfield
Glenn was asked about what's been different about the way Packers quarterback Jordan Love has been playing in recent weeks compared to the previous matchup between the teams in Week 9. The defensive coordinator used the question to praise the opposition for building their scheme around running back Josh Jacobs.
“I’m going to give a lot of credit to the head coach also because I know early in the season — I’m just talking about this season right now — but I know (Love) was throwing interceptions,” Glenn said. “He was still having a good year, as far as getting the ball downfield and getting the ball to the receivers, but I think what they’ve done a really good job of is saying, ‘Listen, Jacobs, you’re going to run this team and everything’s going to go through you.”
In the three games since the Packers lost to the Lions, Jacobs has amassed 360 yards from scrimmage and scored five touchdowns, all on the ground. Glenn said that caliber of play from a running back makes everything operate more smoothly for a QB.
“That’s going to make you even more effective because now you have to try to stop this run,” Glenn said. “…Now, he’s going to get more of his one-on-one matchups and those throws might be somewhat easier for him. So yes, coach (Matt) LaFleur has done a really good job of riding Jacobs, and then he’s allowing Love to do the things that he’s always been good at doing is getting the ball downfield to these elite receivers that he has.”
Jacobs, in his first year with the Packers, is currently third in the NFL with 987 rushing yards, behind MVP candidates Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry.
“I said this the first time that we played them; when you have a running back of that nature, it changes the mindset of the O-line,” Glenn said. “So now the O-line knows that we have this physical runner, so that turns into a more physical offensive line and all they have to do is show him, give him a little crease, and they know that he’s going to make 3 yards out of nothing. Most of those 3 yards end up getting to be 6 and 7 yards and he’s going to break a tackle. I think he fits that scheme perfectly and he’s doing a hell of a job as far as complementing the whole offense, which allows now (for) the vertical passing game to show up.”
When to make the switch
Earlier this season, Campbell suggested the team would prefer to shift Penei Sewell to left tackle if they knew Taylor Decker would be out of the lineup, but it was Dan Skipper manning the blindside on Thanksgiving, and it will likely remain that setup if Decker can’t get cleared ahead of this week’s game against Green Bay.
I asked Johnson what goes into the decision and he had a logical explanation that as long as Decker has a shot to play there’s no reason to mess with moving Sewell.
“(Decker’s) a guy that has played a lot of football, so if you’re telling me that there’s a chance that he could make it, he might not need to practice that week for us to keep him in,” Johnson said. “So, when you’re looking at that, if you think that there’s a chance, then let’s not move Penei over and have to go through those gymnastics right there. So, it’s a little bit of just forecasting who’s going to be available that week.”
Skipper has had to step in twice for Decker this season and the Lions won both games, besting Houston and Chicago. I asked Johnson what he thought of the veteran backup’s performance in those games.
"He’s come in and he’s fought his tail off which is exactly what we expected from him," Johnson said. "He’s a guy that — he understands his physical limitations and he adjusts accordingly. If he needs to take a certain angle because he might now be quite as quick as Decker might be on some things, then he knows how to do that.
"He also knows how to handle these edge rushers to where it makes them — if they are going to win a rep, he’s not going to allow them to do that quickly. It’s going to take them a second to do that. So he does a great job for us. We know he’s going to fight, we know he’s going to finish for all 60 minutes.
Flowers for the big fella
DJ Reader is coming off the second two-sack performance of his career and set a new personal best with 3.0 sacks in a season. Rushing the passer isn’t what the 335-pound nose tackle is known for, but the production in that department hasn’t surprised Glenn.
“To see him go out there and get the production that he had this past week — because he doesn’t get the credit he (deserves) — but to see him get the production with the two sacks, it was just time coming,” Glenn said. “We knew that he can push the pocket. We knew that he can make plays like that, and again, I’m going to say this, he’s way more athletic than what people give him credit for. I expect those things to continue to happen for him.”
Reader, in his ninth season out of Clemson, now has 12.5 sacks during his career. When I talked to him in the locker room after the game, he immediately recalled his other two-sack outing coming against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
“Oh, I know I got Brady twice,” Reader said.
Even though it’s a new career-high in sacks, Reader has been impactful as an interior pass rusher for much of his career. He generated at least 32 pressures in four of the past five seasons. The lone exception was 2020 when he missed most of the year due to injury.
Practice report
In addition to Decker, defensive linemen Josh Paschal, Levi Onwuzurike and Reader didn’t practice.
Campbell cast doubt on Paschal and Onwuzurike’s availability over the weekend after both exited with knee injuries on Thanksgiving. Reader briefly exited that contest but returned after landing hard on his shoulder.
Also notable from Monday’s practice was Jamal Adams working through individual drills with the linebackers, as opposed to the defensive backs.
The Pack barely beat Chicago, and played two down-trending teams in SanFran and Miami the last three weeks. Nothing too special. Detroit is better than Green Bay even as beat up as they are. The offense gets back on track and Goff finds a way to score some points.
And Justin, you need some time off.