Coordinator recap: Fipp rants on PFF, Jamo and Houston draw praise and Bates' game-day demeanor

Allen Park — Here are the greatest hits from Thursday’s media sessions with the Detroit Lions’ three coordinators.

PFF? More like pffft

I asked special teams coordinator Dave Fipp a fairly generic question about what he’s most proud of from his groups after the first half of the season and where they need to tighten up down the stretch. I was not prepared for the 1,100-word answer that deviated pretty far from the original topic, splintering into an epic rant against DVOA and Pro Football Focus grades. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it for the response for its passion and authenticity.

Fipp has a tendency to give at least one lengthy answer weekly and he knows it, acknowledging he was about to filibuster his media session in the early stages of his response to my question.

I’m not posting the entire answer, because no one has time for that, but I do want to share a comedic portion about PFF.

“Well, here’s two stories for you on PFF,” Fipp said. “Number one is I get on a plane, I think I was going to the combine. This is years ago, and when I sit down, this guy sitting next to me says, ‘Hey, are you a coach for…?‘ — I think I was with Philly at the time. I’m like, ‘Yeah,’ And he’s like, ‘Ah, I’m a grader of PFF.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’

“He was a young guy, I’m like, ‘Tell me about yourself,’” Fipp said. “The guy had never coached football, never played football and he’s grading our players on who played good and who played bad. So, I’m like, ‘Wow.’

To be fair, this feels like a fairly common point made in locker rooms, but Fipp's story gets better with the second anecdote.

“The next thing on that is we play a game at the Giants and the special teams coach at the time, or assistant there at the time (who) was a good friend of mine, he came up to me before the game and he said, ‘Hey man, just so you know, this player…‘ — I can’t say his name, he’s actually in the media nowadays — but he said, ‘This player, he’s the best rated frontline blocker on kickoff return in the National Football League.’ And I was like, ‘Who said that?’ And he was like, ‘PFF.’

“I was like, ‘PFF?’” Fipp continued. “I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I’m like, ‘Number one, this guy’s like the worst blocker on our team.’ But number two, we put him on these matchups on the backside of the return every week where he’s blocking basically a guy that doesn’t need to be blocked, but we kind of have to block him, just in case. So he wins the matchup, he got a good PFF grade, and he’s really the worst player on our team at his job description, but he’s really the best with PFF.”

I have a guess on the player, based on some quick research, but it feels like a bad idea to share that speculation. I will say, if I’m right, it honestly makes the entire story more humorous.

Jamo responds to sideline challenge

Jameson Williams has drawn praise from his teammates and coaches for his performance against the Texans. The speedy receiver didn’t put a huge stat line in the win, but he came up with timely, chain-moving grabs that carried an unusually high degree of difficulty.

“We absolutely needed him,” offensive coordinator Ben Johnson said. “The one third down early in the game was — (QB) Jared (Goff) said he put it behind him just a little bit and he was able to come down with that ball and extend that drive.

“And then, in the fourth quarter there, you saw the one where — I don’t know if I’ve seen him make that catch even in practice over the last two-and-a-half years,” Johnson said, referring to the grab over the middle where Williams absorbed two big hits and held on to the ball. “That was certainly encouraging to see. He’s really coming on and showing up.”

Earlier in the second half, prior to the tough grab across the middle, Williams had been the target on an intercepted deep throw. Johnson confirmed the receiver took a poor angle on his route, which was the primary factor in the turnover, leading to the coach challenging the player on the sideline to make up for the miscue.

“He came to me and was like, ‘Hey was my angle right?’” Johnson revealed. “I was like ‘No, it wasn’t right, it’s not what we had talked about. But the ball’s going to come to you in the fourth quarter here and we need you to make a play.’ And he responded to that call just like that. I think that happens within practice, it happens in the meeting room, and it certainly happened on game day last week for us.”

“…Our margin for error had gone down, so he needed to make that play for us at that time and he did. The level of confidence in him and his hands and his (attention to) detail continues to rise.”

Houston draws praise

I’m sure the Lions would reject the terminology, but defensive end James Houston has been in the doghouse for what has felt like two years. And he probably would have stayed there had the positional depth chart not been decimated early in the season.

But injuries create opportunities, and Houston is starting to capitalize on his, logging a little more than 20 defensive snaps in the past three games. His performance against the Texans on Sunday was notable because he recorded his first sack since his rookie year, but it was the improvement with the details of his position that caught the coaching staff’s eye.

“I don’t want to say (he’s) turned the corner, but I will say that you saw the improvement and I think he got the message of what the expectations of him needs to be, and that has to be on a week-to-week basis,” defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said. Again, like I said, the pass rush, I knew that was going to be there. The way he played the run in this game, that’s what I was excited about for that player because now it’s just going to give him the confidence to go out and do all the things that we know he can do at a better rate.”

Houston was electric as a rookie in 2022, recording 8.0 sacks in seven games after a midseason promotion off the practice squad. But the following offseason, he spent training camp repping with the third-team defense before suffering a broken ankle in Week 2 that put him on the shelf until the postseason.

This year, it was much of the same, with his positioning on the depth chart leading to some outsiders, myself among them, speculating Houston might get cut coming out of camp. Instead, he squeaked onto the roster, only to spend three of the first five games as a healthy scratch.

A ways away

Second-year defensive tackle Brodric Martin is nearing the expiration of his practice acclimation window as he works his way back from a training camp injury. Before going down, you could see the young player’s improvement. So after having him back for two weeks, I asked how much has Martin been able to pick up where he left off.

What I gathered is this was a pretty significant setback for the young lineman’s development.

“That’s a tough situation for any player, especially at that position, because of the physical nature of that position,” Glenn said. “He’s a big man with long arms, something we require here to play that position, but being able to go through the physical task of doing those things on a day-to-day basis is something that he’s got to get back to, and I would never put a guy out there that hasn’t had a chance to practice and feel that.

“…So those are things that we have to see with him as he goes through this process,” Glenn said. “Listen, we all know what type of player he is, and we knew where he had to improve to be a part of what we’re trying to do. We hate the fact that it happened because we did think that he was improving, so that clock just has to start right back over with him, and it starts with him going out there in practice.”

Trading compliments

Johnson said the offense’s first-half performance in Houston was among the worst stretch of football the unit has played since he’s been the coordinator. But it allowed the coach to praise the defense for bailing his group out.

“It’s year 13 (of my career), I say this all the time, best defense I’ve ever been around,” Johnson said. “It is a comforting thought knowing that we are putting them in some tough spots at times and they’re just powering through. They don’t blink an eye. Turnover, poor field position, a three-and-out by us, they go out there they just get us the ball right back right away. It’s a very comforting thought and the challenge for us as an offense right now is to pull our weight because we feel like those two other units are doing it on their side of the ball right now.”

Interestingly, Glenn used his opening comments on Thursday to highlight Jared Goff’s moxie before talking about his own guys.

“There’re a number of guys that stand out in that game, but the one guy that stood out more to me than anybody, and this is going to sound a little funny with me saying this, is our quarterback,” Glenn said. “For him to go through what he did, and to be able to take this team under his wing and drive the ball and score the touchdown that we needed, and make the critical plays that we needed to give us a chance to win that game, was outstanding. He didn’t blink and that’s the one thing that showed up more than anything is the leadership — the toughness, the ability to take a team on his back and go win a game was outstanding to see.”

Game day loner

Nothing about Jake Bates having ice water running through his veins in the closing minutes of the Houston contest surprised Fipp. The coach sees the kicker’s laser focus daily and shared a story about how he's come to appreciate it.

“Everybody’s got a different stroke, everybody’s got a different technique or way of going about it,” Fipp said. “I am definitely less is more with that position, in general. …So we’re going in the preseason. I’m getting to know him and we’re in the middle of a preseason game and I go up to him to say something, and man, you could tell he wanted no part of nothing at that moment. He was so locked in and focused.

“Then I kind of watched him more in his pregame,” Fipp said. “I mean, he doesn’t talk to anybody. He stays locked in. He’s obviously focusing. You’d have to ask him on whatever he does and he’s got his way about it. But the truth is, for me, on game day I stay away from him. I watch him in the warmups if there’re any pointers to give at that time, just very subtle things that I think might help, and then I say it. If not, I let him go, I stay working on other guys around him, but the rest of it’s on him.”