Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard kept it straight and to the point regarding his goals for the secondary ahead of Week 4 against the Carolina Panthers.
Pride of Detroit's Jeremy Reisman reported that Sheppard told reporters:
Kelvin Sheppard says there was a lot of improvement from Jets game.
— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) October 1, 2026
Run defense was much better, and they decreased explosive plays allowed from 11.5 per game to 7.
But says that's not good enough for the standard, and they need to still improve (cut explosives by half again)
Limiting explosives in Week 4 sounds a lot easier than it looks. The Panthers are the top passing offense in the NFL this season so far, averaging 295.7 passing yards per game. Even if the team is missing Jalen Coker this week (who, by the way, did practice some on Thursday ahead of Sunday night's contest), they're a huge threat in the air for the Lions.
This challenge is one that feels quite...daunting, let's say. We don't even really know what the Lions' secondary will look like for this game with so much necessary experimentation on that front, so to hope that they can shut down a potent Panthers offense feels like a pie in the sky dream.
Sheppard's proposed goal for defense feels a little tough to imagine
Detroit is likely to test Ennis Rakestraw Jr. more in this game amid some major steps back from Rock Ya-Sin at CB2 and some abysmal play from D.J. Reed to begin the season. It's a lot to ask of Rakestraw to step in and look like an immediate answer to the Lions' problems in their secondary, but they have to try something after missing out on Joey Porter Jr.
horn will be a big loss for carolina the next few weeks but trent my gawd pic.twitter.com/aL7hYPh2D1
— frank (@realfrankbrank) October 1, 2026
As you can see in the above chart, which measures EPA per target versus DVOA allowed, the Lions' two starting corners are bottom of the barrel. Most disappointing about this is that Reed - who should be the most reliable cornerback on this roster! - is allowing the most EPA per game in the NFL. That's just so discouraging.
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Detroit is also facing a totally different threat in Carolina than they were against the Jets. Geno Smith can still sling it, as we saw in Week 3, but the Jets aren't going to kill you in the air the way that Young and the Panthers can.
The only hope for the Lions achieving this goal headed into this game is relying on their pass rush. Rushing Young through his motions could help to throw him off kilter a bit, and that could benefit the secondary as they have to keep up with Carolina's young receiving corp.
Young is both one of the better quarterbacks in the league in total EPA against the zone (11.51) per Sumer Sports, so getting to him with effective blitzing and pressure will be key to helping out their slow secondary.
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