Nothing went totally as planned for the Detroit Lions last season. Kelvin Sheppard was the anointed successor to Aaron Glenn well before Glenn took a head coaching job, but things went poorly enough that there were viable questions about Sheppard's getting a second season as defensive coordinator.
But, as generally expected, Sheppard remains in place running the Lions' defense. With an eye on further establishing himself as one of the best young coordinators around, he'll leave Detroit for a head coaching job, not because Dan Campbell fired him.
While Glenn was able to work some magic around a rash of injuries in 2024 until his unit was just too depleted, Sheppard was not able to do the same last season. A run defense that was top-five in the league in each of Glenn's last two seasons fell to 14th last season, and there was another notable difference.
By necessity or Glenn's general philosophy, the Lions had a top-10 blitz rate in each of his four seasons running the defense. Last season, the Lions had a bottom-12 blitz rate in the league (21.9 percent).
One year as a coordinator is not enough to tell us who Sheppard is as a defensive play-caller. His second season should be, and really has to be, more revealing on that front.
Mike Garafolo gives serious bump to Kelvin Sheppard's stock
On the April 14 edition of NFL Network's "Good Morning Football", the panel talked about where the Lions are heading into the draft. Sheppard and the defense was a topic of discussion, so insider Mike Garafolo took an opportunity to offer his thoughts on the Lions' defensive coordinator.
"The Kelvin Sheppard angle that you're talking about...2026 is the year of Kelvin Sheppard as the defensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions", Garafolo said.
"Last summer, I'm at training camp, talking to players. They're like 'you don't understand, this guy's calling out stuff, before the ball's even snapped, he can see things that are happening'."
"That's great. I want to now see that, as I'm watching the Lions....I want them playing that way, I want them dictating things", Garafolo continued. "I want Kelvin Sheppard putting his stamp on the defense. It didn't happen in Year 1. I'm not saying he's not capable of it...maybe it takes a little bit of time. You wanna get the personnel, the way you wanna see it as a defensive coordinator."
"So for me, Year 2, I wanna see a more dictating Lions' defense."
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A "more dictating" Lions' defense strongly insinuates a return to the more aggressive blitz rates of Glenn's tenure. But what everyone wants, including a prominent outside voice like Garafolo, is for Sheppard to fully implement his vision for the defense. Whatever it looks like, and ideally with healthy and capable personnel to bring it to light.
The results, for better or worse, will then speak for themselves in a more meaningful way. And then, with two years in the bank as a coordinator, we'll have a clearer picture of who Sheppard is as a defensive mind.
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