The Detroit Lions are four games into the 2026 season, and the defensive performance is reaching historically bed levels. Through four games, the Lions have allowed a league-high 1,695 yards (423.75 per game)—which is the second-most the Lions have ever given up through Week 4. Their 127 points allowed (31.75 per game) is, again, league-high, and it’s fourth worst in franchise history.
Naturally, the topic of firing defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has come up publicly. Given the perceived talent
on the team and the pretty significant spending on that side of the ball, the performance of the defense has been less than unacceptable. It’s been atrocious, particularly with a back-seven of the defense that leave acres of open grass for the opposing quarterbacks to attack.
After Sunday night’s 32-26 loss to the Carolina Panthers, Lions coach Dan Campbell was not ready to talk about the future of Sheppard’s employment. He was asked how many of these bad performances he needs to see before he considers a change at defensive coordinator. His answer:
“Yeah, I’m not talking about all that, man,” Campbell said. “I’m talking about getting better right now with what we got and that’s what we’re going do. We’re going to find a way to get better with what we got.”
No one should expect Campbell to talk publicly about the job security of someone on his coaching staff, particularly in the minutes after a particularly humiliating loss. And Campbell was at least cognizant enough to point out that significant changes need to be made on that side of the ball. Campbell said he believes they have players who can play. They just need to start putting them in better positions to win.
“We’ve got guys on the back end that can cover. We’ve got guys that can hit. We got to pull this thing together and find the right combination of coverage versus pressure and job responsibility, putting guys in the right spot to do what they do,” Campbell said. “And so this is a work in progress. We’re four games in. There again, we just have to find a way to get better. I thought we would play better than we did last week and as a whole we didn’t.”
But at the same time, Campbell warned about overreacting too early. The team is still 2-2 with everything in front of them. The last thing he wants to do is go into “panic mode” with 13 games left. And he believes there are still plenty of things the team can try to pull themselves out of this defensive rut.
“There’s some things we can mix in here that we haven’t done a ton of this year and that’s next step. Let’s see what we can do,” Campbell said. “I want to exhaust everything here. Let’s exhaust everything we have.”
While Campbell didn’t say it, “exhausting everything they have” should certainly involve entertaining the idea of some coaching changes. Whether it means shifting responsibilities or making some tough staff decisions, the Lions truly need to have everything on the table, because they won’t go far with the worst defense in football.
