Detroit Lions promote Kelvin Sheppard to fill defensive coordinator vacancy

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Allen Park — Goodbye Aaron Glenn, hello Kelvin Sheppard.

The Detroit Lions have internally filled a critical coaching staff vacancy, promoting the team's linebacker coach to replace Glenn. The outgoing coordinator accepted the New York Jets head coaching position this week.

Sheppard was an obvious favorite from the start. He joined the Lions staff in 2021 as an outside linebacker coach before shifting to inside linebackers the following year. He also eventually picked up added responsibilities as the team's blitz coordinator.

"That's a guy that I've been actually mentoring to be in the DC role at some point," Glenn said last month. "And I think he's damn near close if not ready to do that. And he's a damn good coach.

"He's fiery," Glenn said. "Everything that you need as a linebacker coach, he's that. And there are certain coaches on the staff that I think have to be bulldogs and he's one of those coaches at that position, along with D-line, O-line and running back. You have to be a fricking bulldog and he does a good job of that."

Sheppard, an eight-year NFL veteran, finished his playing career with a half-season stint with Detroit in 2018. Following retirement, he joined his alma mater, LSU, as the football team's director of player development.

He had hoped to transition into a coaching role with the team the following year. He envisioned spending his entire career at a place near and dear to his heart. When that opportunity didn't develop, the Lions reached out.

Dan Campbell — who briefly coached Sheppard in Miami — recommended Glenn interview Sheppard for a role on Detroit's coaching staff, even though the former linebacker had no experience.

"I'll always believe this, the work ethic will always be there with former players," Glenn told me for a story about Sheppard last year. "The ability to learn and put the time in, that's what you want to figure out. I figured that out my first time speaking with Shep. Dan said, 'Listen, you might just want to talk to this guy. It's your staff, hire who you want to hire,' but once I talked to him and knew where he wanted to be, it was a no-brainer to hire this guy."

Sheppard is known for his intensity, personability, lofty standards and coaching everyone the same. Whether it's defensive captain Alex Anzalone or an incoming undrafted rookie, Sheppard's expectations don't change.

"It's hard for young coaches to get the demand part down," former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson told me last year. "It's not hard for him. It's special the words that he uses, how he speaks to players, the demeanor, the intensity, they respond to it."

Sheppard also puts emphasis on teaching defense from a conceptual standpoint. He doesn't want players to only know their assignment within a play call. Instead, he wants them to understand why they're being asked to do what they're doing and the big-picture goal of the calls within the scheme.

That way of thinking was introduced by Sheppard by his former defensive coordinator at LSU, John Chavis. Sheppard credits that shift for helping him stay in the league as long as he did.

"I tell the players, 'If a coach can't tell you why, he's not coaching,'" Sheppard said.

In his four years with the Lions, Sheppard has had plenty of success developing individual players. In his first season, he helped defensive end Charles Harris tally a career-high 7.5 sacks.

Working with the inside linebackers, Sheppard oversaw the best three seasons of Anzalone's career, helped first-round pick Jack Campbell make a second-year leap in production, and got Derrick Barnes to round a developmental corner in his third season to become a key defensive contributor.

Sheppard also proved he doesn't treat players differently based on their draft status or experience when he chose sixth-round draft pick Malcolm Rodriguez to start as a rookie. That decision-making process was featured in the HBO documentary series "Hard Knocks."

Sheppard will inherit a defense that made significant strides in 2024, despite being ravaged by an unusually high number of injuries. After finishing 23rd in scoring in 2023, the unit ranked seventh last season, allowing just 20.1 points per game. Notably, the team was first in passer rating against and third down conversion rate.