TRENDING A'ja Wilson MVP — again TNF preview: Bucs-Cowboys NFL Week 5 NFL picks vs. spread Caitlin Clark on Fever future Rays troll Yanks after sweep Story by Andy Backstrom Contributing writer Thu, October 8, 2026 at 8:50 PM UTC · 4 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through four games, the Detroit Lions are bottom 10 in the NFL in passing EPA per play allowed (+0.26) when blitzing, according to Next Gen Stats. Last week, in a "Sunday Night Football" defeat to the Carolina Panthers , quarterback Bryce Young completed 9-of-11 passes against the Lions' blitz for 95 yards and a touchdown, per NGS.
During a Thursday news conference, Detroit defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard was asked what he can do schematically to make his unit's blitzes more effective.
"Those calls were the right calls. Those calls were the right calls. And I'll leave it at that," said a fiery Sheppard , who's in his second season as the Lions' DC and his sixth with the organization.
But then came a follow-up question, which inquired about the evident disconnect between the calls and the execution, specifically regarding the Panthers game.
"Those are private conversations that we have that I'm going to keep in-house," the 38-year-old Sheppard said. "Those calls were the right calls."
RPOs gashed the Lions in the 32-26 Panthers victory . While Detroit has flashed potential along a defensive front that includes prized defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and burgeoning defensive tackle Tyleik Williams, its back seven has struggled. The Lions allowed Young to throw for 329 yards and a pair of scores.
Sheppard's unit entered Week 5 ranked second to last in the league in points per game allowed (31.8), behind only the New Orleans Saints (32) .
The Lions, buoyed by five-time Pro Bowl quarterback Jared Goff and a talent-laden offense, are still 2-2, with a road game against the 1-3 Arizona Cardinals on tap. Sheppard, though, doesn't want to discuss the notion that Detroit's offense is carrying the team.
"I can care less about perceptions," Sheppard said Thursday at the podium.
"I can care less about the talk. It's all poison. And I mean that. Every word of it's poison. The praise is the big poison, though. It's not the negativity. ... It all comes in waves, guys, and it's all poison. We have a three-phase team here, and I firmly believe that. And I'm going to stand strong in that belief.
"I think that's ultra-disrespectful to my unit to say somebody has to carry us. We're going to do our one-third here, hell or high water, point blank, period."
At the moment, no NFL team is conceding more passing yards per game (304) than the Lions. Fortunately for Detroit, it's primed to get 2024 Pro Bowl safety Brian Branch back soon.
But the return of one player won't simply fix the Lions' defensive dilemma. Detroit's coaches have diagnosed a trust issue on that side of the ball.
"When a guy feels like [another] guy isn't in his gap, 'Now, OK, I'm going to play my gap, but then I'm going to go try to peak to his and see if I can kind of help over there, too,'" Sheppard said, illustrating the problem at hand.
"And then the ball hits in your gap, and this is happening a little too much. So now we got to do one or two things. ... We got to make sure guys you don't trust aren't out there, or you guys get it corrected and you get it corrected in a hurry."
Lions head coach Dan Campbell de-escalated postgame questions about Sheppard's job security last week . Campbell maintained that the focus is improving "with what we've got."
Sheppard, who replaced now-New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn as the Lions' DC in 2025, is well aware that change is imperative — not the wholesale kind that overhauls the system but small tweaks that can cause big results.
"There has to be real evidence of change," Sheppard said. "Whatever the case is, something has to change because coming out of training camp, this is far from where we thought we would be at and should be at, and I still do standing here before you after the four-game sample size. So these things will get corrected."
He added: "I do feel like we're right there at this wall right now and banging on this wall. And I said there's going to be a group of men that bust this MFer down."
Source: Sport
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