Detroit Lions DC Not Expected to Make Drastic Changes to Defense

If Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard returns for a second season in Motown, the expectation is changes to his overall scheme will not be drastic.

In his first season running Detroit's defense, there have been several bumps in the road. In the second half of the season, the run defense tailed off, the number of explosive plays given up drastically increased.

To make things even more challenging, Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph and Terrion Arnold all were lost for the season. Injuries battered the defense for the second straight season.

Kelvin Sheppard deploys a man-to-man coverage defense, but has implemented an increased amount of zone coverage the past couple of weeks.

When asked, the former NFL linebacker believes his scheme is adaptable and has been effective in several games this season.

"No, I don't see drastic change," Sheppard said, when asked by Lions OnSI why he believes his scheme still helps the Lions win games. "What I see, and what I've learned in my first year on the job of calling defense, it's something me and Dan (Campbell) talk about every day. You start off the year, I'd be lying to you guys, I started off the year, 'I want to have a top defense in these categories. Top these, top that, top that.' And you get caught in these statistical things. That means nothing if you're not winning football games."

Detroit's former linebackers coach explained the scheme is adapted each week to attack the opponent on the schedule.

"This league is about adaptability. You can have a system all you want, but it's whatever dictates that week is necessary to win the football game," said Sheppard. "And that's predicated on a lot of different variables. You talk about the offense that you're facing, you're talking about the personnel that's at your disposal that week. It's a lot of different variables.

"My job has been, and I believe we have done that as a defensive staff week-to-week, what is it going to take to stop this offense? And more importantly, what is it going to take for us to play complementary football and win this football game?"

Despite glaring issues, Sheppard does not want to believe drastic changes need to take place.

"I believe we have a very versatile system here, where we're able to adapt and adjust on the run. I believe that not only myself, but my staff and these players have done a good job. Listen, the ball hasn't fell our way. I understand where we are with eight losses and out of playoff contention. But, I'm not going to sit up here and say there needs to be a drastic change or this didn't work, that didn't work. There were weeks we played at a high level with the exact same system, and there were weeks that we did. After this game, we'll go back and look at that in totality and find out the real whys behind it."

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