Revisiting a lengthy 2023 sit-down interview with new Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard
Allen Park — During the 2023 offseason, when it was apparent Kelvin Sheppard was a coach on the rise, I had the opportunity to sit down with him for more than an hour at the Detroit Lions practice facility to dig into his background, present and future.
That resulted in a feature I wrote for the Detroit News, which is still worth your time if you have a subscription to my former employer.
Now that Sheppard has been promoted to serve as Detroit's defensive coordinator, I thought I'd share the full transcript of that conversion to better highlight how Sheppard sees the game and the influences that have shaped that thinking.
Warning: The text from this conversation is approximately 10,000 words. Even for paid subscribers, that's too much to send through email, so you'll have to click through to DetroitFootball.net to read the entire piece.
Question: As a player, you had seven stints with six teams across an eight-year career. How do you think that instability and constant need to adapt helped prepare you for coaching?
Sheppard: “Oh, it's been a tremendous help because guys don't want the 'journeyman' career. I never spent more than two and a half years with one team. So having to go in, with the position I played, I always wore the green dot and called the defense. Whenever I got there, and I took pride in it, I had to know everything.
“But that actually started before the NFL. A lot of people don't really know this, people in football do, but it happened in college. I went into college, (Bo) Pelini was my position coach. He was in the room with me every day and he was the coordinator, so I had everything right there. It was a one-stop stop. Then coach (John) Chavis, Chief, came in my junior year. At that point, I was the middle linebacker. Everyone on campus knew I was the middle linebacker. I remember Chief came in, he was this short, angry guy and he's like, 'Come see me in my office.' I'm like, 'For what?' Then I went up and talked to him and he presented this thing to me where we had four linebackers he deemed as starters and he had to find a way for all four to play when he could only play three at a time.
“I'm like, 'Why the f___ you got me in your office because I'm playing. I don't know why you brought me in here.' He's like, 'Calm down. You're the one that I trust the most. That's why you're in here. Has anybody ever talked to you about conceptual learning' I'm like, 'What do you mean, conceptual learning?' He said, 'Conceptual. Not learning the plays, but the full concept.' I said, 'No, nobody has every taught it to me that way, but I've always tried to learn that way. What does this have to do with me?'
“He's like, what I'm thinking of doing is starting you at middle linebacker. Second series of the game, you go to Sam. The third series of the game, you go to Will. Fourth series you take off. Then you come back in and do it all over again.' I'm not going to lie, I was like, 'What? No.'“
Question: You weren’t about to agree to coming off the field every four series, were you?
Sheppard: “You know it. I'd rather compete and whoever wins the jobs wins the jobs. He's like, 'I knew you were going to say it.' He said, 'I know we just met, but you've got to trust me. You're smart enough to do this.' Looking back, it's the best thing I ever did. Because going in and having to know all three linebacker spots opened my mind to learning everything and I found it allowed me to play middle linebacker faster because I knew what the other guys were doing.