Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard: It starts with toughness in the trenches

The Lions' new offensive coordinator John Morton said this week that everything the team will do on offense starts with quarterback Jared Goff and their new defensive coordinator shared his building blocks as well.

Kelvin Sheppard was the team's linebackers coach before being promoted to take over for Aaron Glenn and he said to Dan Miller of CBS 2 in Detroit that one of the challenges of his new job is "not trying to put everything around the linebackers." Sheppard said that the priority will be on the front line of the defense and cited this year's Super Bowl champion Eagles as an example of what kind of play you need on the defensive line.

"Everything you do on defense starts with the front," Sheppard said. "Just look at the final guys in the championship game. And everybody knows. This is not [like] I’m telling some secret. It starts with the trenches in both the run and pass game. Everybody is so pass-happy nowadays, but if you really watch these games, it’s a lot of people going back to the roots of football, and that’s toughness in the trenches. You better have that. It starts there. I always say, ‘You have to earn the right to rush the passer.’ It doesn’t matter if you can get off the ball and be this glorified pass-rushing type player if you don’t earn the right to get to those pass-rushing downs. So, just making sure we find that fine balance in guys that can play the run and the pass, and making sure they gel with who we want to be because that supersedes everything."

The Lions never got a chance to play the Eagles in the playoffs because they stumbled against the Commanders in the divisional round. If they get the chance in 2025, Sheppard wants them to fight fire with fire.