After a Week 4 loss against the Carolina Panthers, defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The Detroit Lions gave up a career-high in receiving yards, receptions, and touchdowns to Tetairoa McMillan, some back-breaking passes to Darren Waller, and an elite night from Bryce Young.
A lot of that had to do with the way that Sheppard was utilizing the Lions' top-rated defensive line against Young, which is to say with a ton of blitzing. Young managed to post +0.67 EPA/play against the Lions' blitzing on 12 drop backs, per Pride of Detroit's Al Karsten. That number is his fifth-best of his career, and was a season-high.
So, obviously, that wasn't the solution. And yet, Sheppard continued to hit that button, to no success. It generated pressures, yes. But, no real impact on Young's play. Yet, Sheppard doubled down on his decision to lean into that play-calling on Thursday ahead of the Lions' Week 5 bout against the Arizona Cardinals.
"Those calls were the right calls. Those calls were the right calls. And I'll leave it at that." Sheppard reiterated to reporters.
Sheppard's over-reliance on blitzing will be his demise
Ignoring the grandstanding from Sheppard here, which is a little insulting to those who have been watching his game plan fall apart week after week behind his blitzing, the fact that he still believes they were the right calls could end up being his undoing. We know that the Lions' front line is excellent this season, but sending them to blitz so often is doing the complete opposite of what this secondary needs.
Blitzing forces the secondary to try and play man coverage, when this unit is simply not constructed for that: D.J. Reed is too slow. Rock Ya-Sin is also too slow, and not athletic enough, and is now injured. Their safety room is comprised of a mega-veteran in Chuck Clark, and an unproven starter in Christian Izien. They are just not the roster to make this amount of blitzing actually work.
Sheppard chomping at the bit to get Brian Branch back
Sheppard also alluded to the fact that Branch, who is back at practice this week for the first time since tearing his achilles last December, could be ready to play in Week 5. He told reporters, "If we were playing tonight it would be realistic."
It might be best to wait to deploy Branch in Week 7, though. The team would be utilizing their bye week to their, and Branch's, advantage by giving him another week to get up to speed with the play book and up to game speed physically. Of course, it's likely Sheppard wants Branch out there to help mask some of his deficiencies with play-calling at the moment.
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He jokingly mentioned that he's also been wondering of Branch, "How many positions can he play and how fast?" The joke fails to land at the moment with just how poorly he's done so far this season, and with how poorly the secondary is doing.
Another wrench thrown out by Sheppard that might surprise some fans: he speculated that the team is wondering if rookie cornerback Keith Abney II could transition into a safety, as well. I mean, desperate times call for desperate measures, but it'd be hard to justify this level of experimentation when the team could simply try and locate a safety on the trade market.
Let's see if he can first be a reliable solution to the Lions' slot woes, then worry about his versatility as a do-it-all defensive back.
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