Revisiting Detroit Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard's media session at the NFL scouting combine
Indianapolis — Last week, Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard met with a small group of local media who traveled to the league’s scouting combine.
That conversation got stuck in a backlog of a busy week, but before free agency opens on Monday, let’s dive into some of the key points from that nearly half-hour conversation.
Finding solutions to 2025’s problems
By the time Sheppard had arrived in Indianapolis for last week’s combine, he was deep into his offseason self-scout with his staff, meticulously combing through the tape to identify strengths and weaknesses that should help build a better defense in 2026.
“It’s what we normally do every year, but this year, we’ve taken a different approach, so to say, with slowing that down,” Sheppard said. “What we’ve done is we’re tearing off all the band-aids, trying to look through every crack and crevice to see where the good things were, the bad things were, and where can we improve as coaches, players, (and) in totality.”
One notable area of focus was the unit’s struggles preventing explosive plays. Internally identified as passes of 17 or more yards and runs gaining at least 12 yards, Sheppard said there’s been a detailed review of all 105 of those snaps.