The Detroit Lions utilized an odd strategy to defend the hail mary, but defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard defended it.

Allen Park — Kelvin Sheppard is six years removed from his last season playing in the NFL.  The Detroit Lions linebackers coach hung it up following the 2018 season, after spending a year with a Lions that finished 6-10, last in the NFC North. He took…

Indianapolis — Kelvin Sheppard doesn’t quite understand why everybody keeps pointing out that he's "still so young." Sure, the Detroit Lions’ new defensive coordinator is only 37 years old. But in football years? He’s spent 32 years in the game,…

Allen Park — There always were questions before. Lots of them, at times. But if you ask Kelvin Sheppard what’s different now that he’s carrying this new title as the Lions’ first-year defensive coordinator, he’ll tell you the answer in two parts. The first is more logistical. “The only thing that feels different is I’m sitting at the head of the table, and not next to A.G.,” Sheppard said, referring to his predecessor and mentor, Aaron Glenn, who left Detroit to take the New York Jets’ head coaching job back in January. More: Aidan Hutchinson looks 'really good' as he works his way back from injury The second part is more logical, though. And it gets the crux of what we’re all going to find out about this revamped staff surrounding Dan Campbell as he enters his fifth season at the Lions’ helm. There are 10 new coaches this spring, and for the first time since 2021, new coordinators on offense and defense. “And on the grass, everybody’s looking to you,” said Sheppard, who spent the last four seasons as a position coach under Glenn before earning a huge promotion this winter. “Like, it’s not just the linebackers anymore. Dan asked me what was the biggest difference being on the field now and it’s that everyone is looking to you. It’s not just the Mike, the Will, the Sam. It’s the corner who may have a question for you. The safety. The nose tackle. And you gotta be ready on a dime to give those players an answer.” 'Always something' That job description is built into the title, of course. They’re called “coordinators” for a reason. But as one of the new faces on Sheppard’s defensive staff can attest, it still takes some getting used to initially. Kacy Rodgers, the 30-year coaching veteran brought in from Tampa Bay this winter to lead the defensive line, made that transition himself a decade ago when he took over as the Jets’ defensive coordinator. And he has warned Sheppard it’s that “juggling” act that’s the toughest part about sitting at the head of the table or standing at the front of the meeting room. It’s “all the questions” you get, he says, and not just from the players. It’s the ones you get from an assistant wanting to do something this way or that way, and the cascading questions that follow from the rest of the staff as a result. "As a coordinator, you go in your office and everybody comes to the door,” Rodgers said, smiling, as he mimicked knocking on the podium in front of him. “It is always something.” But one thing we’ve learned about Sheppard in watching his quick coaching ascension here in Detroit is that there’s something special about his ability to communicate with players and coaches alike. It’s one of the reasons why Campbell had no qualms about handing the keys to a Super Bowl contender's defense to a 37-year-old with only four years of NFL coaching experience. They'd first met a decade ago when both were with the Miami Dolphins: Campbell as a tight ends coach who was elevated to an interim head coaching role in Miami in 2015, and Sheppard as a linebacker who quickly earned the coach’s respect through his football IQ, his leadership skills and his passion for the game. And it was obvious the past couple seasons that he and Glenn were grooming Sheppard to be a coordinator “sooner rather than later,” as Campbell put it. More: Lions notes: Coaches have CB Ennis Rakestraw Jr. focusing on playing outside, not nickel David Corrao, a longtime Lions assistant who has worn many hats during his time in Detroit, was part of that staff in Miami as well. He's not surprised it ended up being sooner for the guy everyone calls "Shep" around the facility. “Even back then, there’s a leadership quality, there’s an approach, a professionalism to how he comes to the job, and that rubs off on the other guys around him,” said Corrao, who’ll coach the outside linebackers this season while also serving as a sounding board for Sheppard when it comes to game-planning and more. “You guys have seen how the linebackers room has been run the last couple years — the intensity, the demands, the detail. And I think now what we’re going to see is that’s going to spread to the whole defense. When you’re around him, he has that quality that the guys gravitate to. And I think the players are going to go perform for him as well.” They do, and they likely will, because Sheppard does seem to have a knack for simplifying the complex demands of this Lions defense, a scheme that won’t change dramatically from what Glenn was running in recent years but will be expected to do more. And Sheppard does have a unique ability to communicate with his players. Not far removed It helps that Sheppard was one not that long ago, having played eight NFL seasons for seven different teams, including a 2018 swan song in Detroit. That’s also why he’s so insistent on a holistic approach to coaching, making sure his players understand not just the assignment and their alignment but also how it all fits into the bigger picture. Sheppard actually shared an anecdote from Thursday’s voluntary workout in Allen Park to drive that point home. He said Myles Adams, a fifth-year defensive tackle signed off Seattle’s practice squad last fall, stopped him afterward to tell him he never knew what a “hook drop” or a “post drop” was, referencing some coverage techniques linebackers learn but 300-pound tackles often don't. Now Adams knows, though, and “just like I told him,” Sheppard explained, “if you understand what that guy’s doing, how much better does that make you?” “It just makes everybody feel a part of something, versus talking selectively to certain people,” he added. “So I’m a little different when it comes to that.” He’s a little noisier than most, too. And while his friend-turned-colleague, Tashard Choice, the Lions’ new running backs coach, joked this week that the two may come to blows on the practice field when the trash talk escalates during OTAs and training camp, the reality is Campbell is counting on Sheppard to speak loudly and carry a big stick. We all know what the Lions’ high-powered offense is capable of after leading the NFL in scoring last season. But a breakthrough season for the defense was ultimately derailed by a rash of injuries that gutted the starting lineup. Some of them are still working their way back — Sheppard raved Thursday about the progress Aidan Hutchinson has made, among others — and the staff is determined to continue building the depth around them.   But the new guy in charge of that group will be the first to tell you he isn’t new here at all. Only the title has changed, and if you ask Sheppard, the only added responsibility that comes with that is he has to answer to the whole room now, not just his own. “Just like I told the players: We hold you accountable, so hold me accountable,” he said. “If I told you to do something and it changes, hold me to that. ‘Why did it change?’ Always ask why.” The way he sees it, the more questions, the better. jniyo@detroitnews.com This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Niyo: Kelvin Sheppard juggling but not fumbling as Lions' new defensive coordinator