Coordinators recap: Sheppard embraces spy and Morton talks about being a 'car salesman' when installing plays

Allen Park — Detroit Lions coordinators Kelvin Sheppard, Dave Fipp and John Morton met with the media for their weekly press sessions on Thursday. Here are the highlights from those conversations.

● As a journalist, you’re told to never make yourself part of the story. Admittedly, I’ll occasionally break the rule to help paint a clearer picture of an interaction. However, Sheppard didn’t give me a choice this week.

In 2022, he had an aggressive response to a question I had about the utilization of a spy when defending mobile quarterbacks. To say he wasn’t a fan of the concept would be an understatement.

“You show me tape where the spy stuff works,” Sheppard said. “What you do is you waste a defender when you operate like that, and you’re playing prevent defense in a sense. Show me where a spy has tackled Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray in open space. So, to each his own. Whatever you believe in, but I’ve seen that get torched on the college level and the NFL level.”

Clearly, Sheppard’s philosophy has evolved since the Lions executed it with great success during Monday’s victory over the Baltimore Ravens, matching Jackson’s career-worst sack tally by dropping the dual-threat QB behind the line seven times.

Not surprisingly, heading into Sheppard’s Thursday session, I had a question queued up on the topic. However, before I had the chance to ask it, the first-year defensive coordinator got ahead of it with a humorous capper to his opening statement.

“Then, the elephant in the room, Justin finally got to me guys, if anybody was wondering,” Sheppard said. “It took him four years. Took him four years, but he finally convinced me. So yeah, I knew that was coming, but Justin gave me a call last week and said, ‘You’ve got to do this.’ So we did it, so that’s out (of) the way. All right, let’s move forward to Cleveland.”

Even after the playful comment, I was still interested in what had changed. Sheppard said it started with how the Buffalo Bills used linebacker Matt Milano to slow down Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in recent years. Amusingly, some of the prime examples from that execution came during the 2022 season, weeks after Sheppard’s initial railing against using spy.

Sheppard went on to say the success of Detroit’s spy usage on Monday hinged on two critical factors. Schematically, the team continues to work toward making different defensive looks appear the same before the snap. Then, as Sheppard often does, he credited the players’ ability to execute the game plan.

“It’s nothing without the players,” Sheppard said. “These guys are making it really hard on the opposing quarterbacks right now.”

● The Cleveland Browns’ run defense is off to an impressive start, leading in the league in both yards per game and yards per carry allowed. The Bengals, Ravens and Packers averaged just 2.3 yards per carry, with Baltimore’s 45 yards in Week 2 the fewest recorded by the team in a game started by Jackson.

Despite that impressive production, Morton was minimally concerned.

“I mean our front, right now, we’re moving guys,” Morton said. “I don’t think they’ve seen a run game like ours yet. We have patience. We stick with it. I think that’s the biggest thing. Let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve got to do that so we can stay manageable. We have to stay manageable on third down.”

Patience is key. The Lions got off to a slow start against the Ravens, yet finished with 224 yards on 38 carries. That’s the second-most rushing yards Baltimore has allowed in regulation in franchise history.

That follows Detroit’s 177-yard effort in a 52-point outburst against Chicago.

Despite a below-average showing against the Packers to open the season, the Lions rank fourth in rushing yards and seventh in yards per carry. A big reason why is the perimeter effort of Detroit’s receivers and tight ends.

“It’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Morton said. “My 28 years of coaching, the way these wide receivers block, the way (wide receivers coach) Scottie (Montgomery) gets these guys to play.”

● Regarding the significant number of blocked field goals around the league last week, Fipp said it has more to do with the time of the year than any schematic shifts unlocking the opportunities.

“I think sometimes stuff like that happens on special teams, especially early in the season,” Fipp said. “If you look at kind of just the history in the first few weeks, there’s kind of an uptick on blocks and (long) returns and then it kind of goes down. I think guys get better and better at playing at it, players have been out there a little bit longer and have more experiences as the season goes.”

Fipp said it’s also not uncommon to see an uptick in those plays late in the year.

“That’s probably teams are rolling through guys late in the year,” Fipp said. “Guys are getting hurt, maybe some teams in different situations are playing younger guys, stuff like that. And then all of a sudden those guys are learning again. But a day like that was obviously different.”

Fipp said the timing of the blocks was convenient because he felt his team hadn’t blocked well enough during kick attempts the week before, leading to emphasis being put on it throughout the past week of practice. The flurry of blocks only helped drive the coaching point home.

● Morton said he can absolutely feel himself getting into a groove with play-calling. Still, the way the system is set up, coach Dan Campbell can call a play at any time, and often does in critical situations.

“I’m calling it until Dan interjects, or somebody else, you know what I mean?” Morton said. “I’ve got the green light just to go, and then Dan helps when he wants certain things. We talk about that in between series, ‘Give me this, give me that. OK, what do you want?’ So, I’m ready to go.

“…Yeah, when he wants a certain play, he gives it to me,” Morton said. “We’re doing this all together, no question.”

● Following up on Campbell’s Tuesday comment on 97.1-FM that the team will be utilizing nickel cornerback Amik Robertson more, likely at the expense of Terrion Arnold’s playing time, Sheppard said it had more to do with Robertson than Arnold.

“Has nothing to do with Terrion’s player performance, let me start there,” Sheppard said. “Amik has always earned his keep with me. I saw it last year. That’s a player that’s earned the right to be on the field. And just with the frequency of base defense that we’re playing right now, he’s losing snaps. To be honest, he’s earned more than what he’s gotten so far. So we were doing this regardless.”

Confirming Sheppard’s assessment, only two teams have been in base defense more frequently than the Lions through three weeks.

As for Arnold, last year’s first-round pick has unquestionably had some early-season struggles. Sheppard, echoing Campbell’s comments last week, isn’t concerned with the sluggish start.

“I tell him all the time, ‘You’re on an island. You may get beat, but it just can’t be (coverage) busts. It can’t be big games and things like that,’” Sheppard said. “It’s the NFL, corners are going to get beat, it is what it is. It’s our job as coaches to find a way to help this player continue to develop and do the things we saw him do all training camp.”

“…It’s just growing pains,” Sheppard said. “This kid’s very young. What is he? 22? He’s very young and he’s still in the developmental stages. All we have to do right now is find a way to bring that confidence that we saw when you were out there against Jameson Williams and St. Brown all camp to game day. That’s all we’ve got to do and it’s our jobs as coaches to help the player and find a way to get that done.”

● Fipp explained a previously unconsidered reason why the team took Grant Stuard off kickoffs against the Ravens.

“A big challenge going into that game was those guys kicking the ball on the ground,” Fipp said. “I think maybe some of you guys saw that Philadelphia game where the Rams got the ball on the ground, rolling around, and (the Eagles) never fielded it cleanly. They were getting tackled way back there. Baltimore did some of the same things going into the game.

“So we wanted two guys who could definitely field those balls,” Fipp continued. “That was kind of more their skillset, two offensive players, so that factored into it a little bit.”

● Morton had some strong praise and an interesting comp for Lions running back David Montgomery.

“Man, he’s just a stud how he works,” Morton said. “A true professional. He reminds me of a lot of guys I’ve coached. Man, they just take everything. It’s like I come into work, I’ve got my lunch pail, I’ve got my hard hat, every day he brings it. No matter what. And when he gets his rep, he goes full steam. It’s pretty cool.”

As for who Montgomery reminds Morton of from his coaching past, it’s a player who finished his career in Detroit.

“Anquan Boldin,” Morton said. “It was the same for him every day. No matter win or loss, just worked. Just worked. There’s been other guys, but he’s the main guy that I always think of. He’s one of my favorite guys I’ve ever been around.”

● No one has been a bigger supporter of Derrick Barnes since he arrived in Detroit than Sheppard. On Thursday, the coordinator noted that he campaigned for the fifth-year linebacker to be re-signed this offseason.

“You ask (general manager) Brad (Holmes) what he means to my defense,” Sheppard said. “I said that was a player I had to have. I did. And everybody said, ‘Well the stats are just average.’ I told him, ‘That’s a player I have to have.’”

Like Sheppard did early last season, the coordinator praised Barnes’ versatility and how his ability to line up in different spots opens up the scheme.

“I believe this kid can play four, five spots on the football field and do it at a high level,” Sheppard said. “He can play all three stack backer spots. He can play defensive end. …You see him out in the apex in 11-person personnel, which is really a nickel spot. So when you have a player like that, it allows you that ability to present the same looks pre-snap and then post-snap, be able to play a different variety of coverages, different variety of pressure packages and things like that.”

● While the Lions would love to have seen kicker Jake Bates knock down a record-breaking 67-yard field goal before the half on Monday, no one seems discouraged by the miss.

“He knew what the opportunity had in front of him,” Fipp said. “Obviously, man, we want to make that. I thought he hit a good ball, just came on top of it just a tick too much. But, had some leg strength, showed what he could do. I’m excited for the next time he gets that chance.”

● Sheppard continued to be frustrated with his unit’s slow starts after giving up a touchdown on the first drive for the third consecutive week.

“I want to start the game with a three-and-out,” he said. “Hopefully, we can eventually get that done.”

Sheppard was particularly irked with how the Ravens scored during the series on Monday, a 28-yard run up the gut.

“It should’ve never happened,” Sheppard said. “That’s lead power. They run that play at high school level. That should never happen. Inexcusable. It was the longest run of the day. We were dominant outside of that run.”

● Morton said he loves that players have been imitating some of his mannerisms on social media. He wears it as a badge of honor, noting that his enthusiastic teaching style in team meetings is something he learned from Jon Gruden.

“You’ve got to have fun every once in a while,” Morton said. “When I saw it, I’m like, ‘Oh, that was cool.” I don’t see it as they were making fun of me. I thought it was pretty positive, made me feel good.

“…(Gruden) was the best install I’ve ever seen,” Morton said. “He goes, ‘You’ve got to be a car salesman.’ You’ve got to make that play the best play in the world. So, if it takes a little noises and this and that, you’ve got to talk to somebody, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to sell it. You can’t just go up there and be, ‘Blah, blah’. You can’t do that. Who wants to be around a guy like that? So, you’ve got to have energy.”