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Lions News: Kelvin Sheppard was the talk of the NFL this offseason
Lions DC Kelvin Sheppard was reportedly one of the buzziest assistant coaches within NFL circles this offseason
byJeremy Reisman
Jul 21, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC
While Detroit Lions defensive coordinator heads into 2026 with plenty to prove, the young coach has apparently already drawn a lot of attention from other team’s coaches and general managers
Over at The Athletic, NFL reporter and analyst Jordan Rodrigue put together a list of assistant coaches from every team who could break out in 2026. Not only did she list Sheppard as her choice for the Lions, but she added a pretty interesting note from earlier this offseason
“At league meetings in the spring, Sheppard was among the assistant coaches drawing buzz among head coaches and general managers,” Rodriguez wrote. “His energy, apparent buy-in from players and increased experience in the role in his second season have both Sheppard and the Lions’ defense set up well for a bounce-back 2026.”
It’s easy to forget amidst Detroit’s second-half slide last year that early in 2025, Sheppard was getting a ton of praise for producing a top-five defense in the first half of the season. This offseason, he drew an interview for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job and believes he was close to landing the gig
But despite the hype this offseason, Sheppard still has a lot to prove entering just his second year as an NFL coordinator. While he certainly has the personality and leadership qualities of a good coach, he’ll have to put together a full, strong season of defensive play-calling, scheme adjustment, and player development to turn that hype into actual opportunities
Onto the rest of today’s Notes:
- Our Feed Post of the Day comes from CubsLionsFanInCali, who continues a discussion from this week’s PODcast, and questions whether Caleb Williams will every truly be a top-10 quarterback in this league:
Well, Ben Johnson, was the grass any greener?
Listening to the PODcast last night and the cast was discussing whether or not they had any problem with Jared Goff’s ESPN ranking by team execs, coaches, whatever. Jared Goff came in at 9, and Caleb Williams came in at 10
This is not a continuation of that discussion, but something that Ryan Matthews brought up got me thinking. He referenced the recent Bill Barnwell (ESPN) article where the author places a sum of 1st round picks needed to trade for star players (a value or ranking of sorts). If I recall correctly, Barnwell placed one first round pick needed to trade for Goff, and four needed to trade for Caleb Williams. I understand age & contract play a major role in this exercise of Barnwell’s. I do not bring this up to complain or to litigate these rankings.
Personally, I think that if Caleb Williams doesn’t improve with his in-pocket, on-time accuracy, he is far more likely to burn out within the next five years than he is to be a perennial MVP candidate. I am curious what Ben Johnson is thinking. At Ben Johnson’s first press conference with the Bears, I believe he mentioned how excited he was to finally have a mobile QB that can extend plays if they break down. Well, he certainly got that, however that also comes with the least accurate QB in the NFL while in the pocket. I could imagine this being a very important season for Caleb Williams’s career. Ben Johnson is a perfectionist and it has to irk him something fierce to have his offense miss out on the easy yards. I know on the face, he has to show extreme confidence in his young QB, but I am curious how much patience he has inside the building.
So, my question is what would it take for Ben Johnson to swap QBs with Detroit’s? I don’t think it’d require a net of three first round picks going to Chicago (alluded to by Barnwell’s article). In fact, I am curious if it’d take even one
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- Jared Goff joined the NFL Network show “The Insiders” for a brief interview. I’ll have a write-up on one interesting thing he said, but if you want to get a head start, you can watch the whole thing here:
- One Detroit Lions fan, Joel Walkowski, wrote a book about the life of a Lions fan and how it shaped him as a person. The Detroit Free Press has a story about Walkowski here, and the book—entitled “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man”— is available for purchase here.
- Here’s a fun video of Lions players trying to convey their football position (or desired position) wordlessly:
- CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan posted best and worst-case scenarios for every NFL team. It’s not very specific in what that looks like, but it’s an interesting conversation nonetheless.
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