If you’re not studying the competition, you’re setting yourself up for failure in the NFL.
Has he been playing Madden?
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Think about it. The Vikes have Kyler who spends all his time playing video games. Shep is just thinking outside the box. 
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It comes across as him not having a clear idea or scheme. As if he’s going to try a little of every successful defense. I really wish our senior leadership had stepped in and made Dan hire a seasoned coordinator and not his buddy learning on the job. We don’t need anymore seasons wasted by poor defense.
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I think Scheme by itself is a bit overblown. The 2 teams in the superbowl had amazing defenses, and they ran completely opposing systems. One is a one gapping blitzing, stunting, front with tons of zone behind it, while the other is a 2 gapping coverage based man scheme. You can be successful in todays game doing any of those things. But to be good, you have to fit scheme and personel. I still don’t get how a few years ago, we loved devon witherspoon by all accounts.. and when the seahawks took him, we traded back. But it seems like we never considered Christian Gonzalez, who as it turns out may be the best man cover corner in the NFL. Coming out, he was tailor made to play our scheme.. but we were more obsessed with a guy who better fits the seahawks. I mean, they are both very talented, so maybe we just narrowed it down by mental make up, but either way I think we missed out. We ended up with Gibbs, obviously, but then got Jack Campbell one pick behind Gonzalez.
He should really study the defenses that had an outstanding pass rusher and see how they worked to get them isolated. It does involve moving them around. Hutch has way too much motor to just be a down lineman. IIRC a lot of the top pass rushers that are similar to hutch are moved around to create mismatches.
a lot of our defense last year just seemed very…vanilla. I get that it can be overwhelming but, again, there is decades of history showing how things can be done.
Granted, you can only be as good as your players.
Injuries!
It’s hard to play great defense with average talent.
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LOL yes 5 years and injuries are why…
Fundamentally this is concerning. Just like your offense has to have some level of system in place that is able to be function with or without elite talent. The Defense has always relied on elite athletes…this is a schematic issue and proof to me that the coaching has been bottom half to the league.
This reminds me when the only way the Lions used to be able to win it drove a belief that they needed elite athletes. But the best orgs have a system and culture in place that allows them to be absorb injuries and still be function to some extent.
.
It should be called… “Worst Take”
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This this and this!!!
It was almost historic how little they did that last year. And yet they kept going with the base man safe defense and getting torched.
Then after the season was over. The last 2 games. They did actually switch it up and had their best games!
Like woooow. Hard to imagine.
And dont anyone dare bring up injuries last year. Sure DBs were injured. But the front 7? Fully healthy the last 10 games and they had their worst games of their careers in that stretch,
“To some extent” is doing quite a lot of work here. We had historic injury rates on defense the last two years. No system or culture could absorb that level of attrition. This can’t be hand-waved away.
Now, you might get away with it for a game or two – for example, the Legion of Whom game against Tampa Bay, or last year’s season finale against the Vikings. But the problem with backups is that they’re backups for a reason: they aren’t nearly as good, and once their weaknesses are exposed they can be exploited (see Amik getting burned over and over again on the double-hitch).
Now, to agree with you for a bit. This is not to say that last year’s defense wasn’t flawed, for all the obvious reasons that have been beaten to death on this forum. But I don’t think our shortcomings have been due to mediocre schemes or coaching; I think it’s more fundamental than that.
Here’s how’d I’d encapsulate it: Philosophical hubris. And that falls on Dan.
Dan has doggedly insisted on doing defense in a certain way (and offense, for that matter). The problem with this approach is two-fold. First, it becomes predictable, even when the underlying principles are sound and you’re good at them. Second, it becomes much more difficult to execute with attrition. Adaptability has to be baked in to whatever schemes you’re gonna run, so you can change on the fly and keep your opponent guessing. And that means not staking a philosophical position in one’s approach. (Of course, if it’s working in a game, keep doing it.)
Hopefully, given the changes we’re hearing out of Allen Park after last season’s shortfall, the overarching philosophy is finally adapting and evolving to the situation at hand. Dan’s brought in Petzing, who if anything has demonstrated tremendous adaptability and not being wedded to a particular scheme. Shep is studying other defenses to increase the variation he can offer. Even Holmes has been shying away from relying on “value” picks and free agents who’ve had lengthy injury histories.
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Put slightly differently:
‘Guy who is paid a big salary to run part of an organization studies trends within his profession. He focuses on those who have been successful to see if there is something he can learn from them.’
Sigh. It is certainly the offseason. Shouldn’t every defensive coach be doing this? In addition to studying colleges, self-scouting their own tendencies, etc? I bet they are.
We’re all just so starved for football that we eat it up. I mean, I am here after all…
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This I agree with 100%.
And I of course have overstated my hand with
“To some extent” is doing quite a lot of work here.
Again I am going to choose peace on this topic until the season begins. There is not much that can be done at this point. The Lions have committed to Shep and this current defensive coaching staff. I would have preferred to over pay and bring in Flores but who knows maybe Shep is about to be come legend. To be fair, Saban was marginal at a few stops before he became great. Belichick was not great at Cleveland. So it is possible Shep has greatness in him and the best choice is to let it develop here rather than be savage. But I wanted Flores dude is a wizard.
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Oh, I did too. I just never thought he was actually in play.
I remain convinced he wasn’t going ever jump ship (where he’s already got “his guys” in place) unless it was for a HC gig.
He may or may not have greatness in him, but I’m pretty sure another year or two and he’ll have some magic beans to cough up!
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Let’s or let’s not come back to this quote in Week 14 when we have an idea of how well the defense has or hasn’t worked out.
Every time I watch Shep talk he feels like a dumb guy trying to sound smart. I have no faith in him. AG wasn’t perfect but he did something the defense could hang his hat on. He always had an excellent run defense.
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“If you take out those 2 big runs we did okay” … bruh you still gave up 4.5YPC.
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I’ve come to the conclusion the only reason Sheppard is still here this season is because Glenn wasn’t fired in New York.
Sigh. For me, what I’m actually starting to realize, is how much you troll me and how far up my ass hole you are… no offense.
Nah, I’ve always defended AG always and started threads on it. My history on here would prove this. I’m a Jets fan now because of him. The run stopping he was able to bring is something I’ve talked about a lot. I’m in the minority around here when it comes to AG, but I agree with all the players in the league that voted him best coordinator, and believe Kerby when he gave AG the credit for being a good player.
What else? I think DMo is way better than people give him credit for. I’ve defended that a lot.
I think Tyleik in his first season sucked.
I think Jack Campbell is amazing and always loved the pick.
I think this team won’t be able to truly compete until they have a good defense. Or at least have something they’re good at like stopping the run.
I’m not counting Rakestraw out yet i like him.
A more recent one was me saying JSN isn’t that great but still a top 10 WR that i got shit for.
I liked Booker last draft, and I liked Proctor this draft.
I believe in building through the draft and re-signing their own guys, but I also think one big move to get over the hump could be needed.
These are the majority of things I talk about.
Ummm, what else?
OH YEAH! The root of why you’re in my ass root. Because I think Jared Goff is not NEARLY as good as people on here think he is and he’s no where near Stafford. Ding ding ding!
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