The Detroit Lions have a pretty unique power structure amongst their coaching staff this year. Scottie Montgomery, previously the assistant head coach and running backs coach, is now the associate head coach and wide receivers coach. That left the assistant head coach job vacant, which was then tacked on safeties coach Jim O’Neil’s official title.
On Tuesday, both assistants were available to the media and offered a lot of insight into the Lions’ 2026 season and Week 1 vs. the New Orleans Saints.
Here are my biggest takeaways from their media sessions:
The Lions just completed one of their best training camps
All offseason the Lions preached that they were going to treat this offseason differently, with an emphasis on getting back to the basics and increasing competition within their own ranks. With no joint practices and 19 training camp sessions—including three scrimmage style practices—both Montgomery and O’Neil spoke about how much progress they made in the past month.
“This was a tough training camp,” Montgomery said. “[…] I thought coach (Campbell) was just exceptional. He told you he was going to challenge the players, he told us he was going to challenge the coaches. Nobody coming into camp to practice against in camp made it even more competitive. We’re right where we need to be, in my opinion, at this point in time with physicality, with our scheme, our quarterback, our defensive quarterback Jack Campbell.”
“This was as hard of a camp as I’ve been around,” O’Neil said. “We got after it, and I think that everybody got better. Offensively, defensively. We’re going against, for four weeks, you’re going against Jamo, and Jah, and Saint, LaPorta, Jared, and Penei, you can’t help but get better. And I think that they guys did a great job making everybody better. It was a hard camp. We got after it. You guys were out there, so I think we’re ready. I think guys are ready to hit somebody else.”
Lions confident in starting safeties Chuck Clark, Avonte Maddox
The Lions would obviously be better off if their starting safeties Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph were healthy and at their best, but the Lions spent their offseason preparing for them to miss some time. Since the beginning of training camp, veterans Chuck Clark and Avonte Maddox have held down the starting positions, and O’Neil showed a lot of faith in both on Tuesday.
Particularly, he’s been impressed with how Maddox has grown into the position after entering last season as an option a nickel. After spending most of the 2025 regular season learning—and playing—the position, Detroit believes the veteran defender has grown into a legitimate safety.
“Now he’s a pretty damn good safety,” O’Neill said. “I think him and Chuck, both, their ability to process information pre-snap and then put themselves or their teammates in position to make plays is what really stands out to me as to their superpower.”
“It’s pretty cool what’s going on right now in the middle of our defense with Jack Campbell, Avonte Maddox, and Chuck—when the three of them are out there together,” O’Neill continued. “Because they can handle a lot of scheme, checking, and they do a great job communicating with the guys on the outside.”
Those communication skills are going to be huge in Week 1, when the home Ford Field crowd is expected to be extremely loud when the defense is on the field. But Detroit will be plenty prepared on Sunday
“There’s no excuses,” O’Neil said. “You’ve got to get the whole call. And if the call calls for us to check, then it’s your job to communicate to the people around you to make sure that everybody in the back seven or on the entire defense gets the check.”
Don’t forget about Thomas Harper
When O’Neil was asked about the starting safeties, he started by noting that Thomas Harper needs to be included in that conversation.
“Yeah, and I would throw Thomas Harper into that group, too,” O’Neil said. “He’s come on, unbelievably, as a young safety.”
Harper is only entering his third NFL season after going undrafted in 2024. A waiver claim just before the 2025 season starter, Harper really started to come on toward in the middle of this year’s training camp.
“Before he rolled his ankle and missed the last couple weeks of practice, I thought he had his best week—that third week of training camp,” O’Neill said. “He’s the safety that is really good in space when it comes to tackling. He can go get the ball in the deep part of the field, which is a rare characteristic.”
Those are exactly the traits the Lions had in Kerby Joseph, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Harper make it on the field this year. In fact, O’Neil hinted that they may end up using all three of their top safeties.
“I think all three are really different. I think that they all are going to help us,” O’Neil said. “I think that Shep’s doing an awesome job of putting those three guys and putting packages in where they can be at their best and do what they do best.“
How Tay Martin wowed the coaching staff
Martin was one of the most unexpected stories for training camp, and his placement on the 53-man roster is a testament to how he went from tryout player during the spring to a standout amongst a very deep receiver room.
Montgomery explained how Martin impressed the coaching staff every step of the way, from his tryout during OTAs all the way through the end of camp:
“This kid, from Day 1, we worked him out. I had the ability to work him out, of course, and his movement skills were fantastic. So that’s what gets the eye of a lot of people, the movement skills. But you still don’t see any kind of physical demeanor outside of tape until you put the pads on.
What made him stand out is his physical demeanor in the run game. There is a stamp that we want that we’re known by here: our grit, our physicality in what we do. And we saw him in 1-on-1 situations in the hole, in the c-gap, on the perimeter, and he just continued to win those battles. And then when we transitioned into special teams, those battles showed up again.
So, now, if I see the physicaltiy in the run game, I see you doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing on special teams, mentally, as a coach, I’m going to start working and try to find out is there a way that we can see what you can do with the football. So then when we gave him opportunities to catch the football, he did a pretty good job. He came up to me a couple days in and told me he knew multiple positions. That caught my eye once again. So then I tested him at multiple positions, and he did a really good job of it. Then when we put him in in games, he made plays when he had the opportunity to make plays.“
Kelvin Sheppard has a ton of respect within the coaching staff
“I think Shep is just a brilliant, brilliant mind,” Montgomery said unprompted in his opening statement.
The two did their fair share of jawing during training camp, but it came out of both of their competitive nature and their mutual respect for each other. This offseason, Montgomery got to spend more time with Sheppard, and he learned to appreciate just how hard he works.
“The biggest thing that I think you see with Shep is the mind is continually growing,” Montgomery said. “The research that he did this offseason—everytime that I was in the building, I feel like he was in the building. […] I come in, he’s here, he’s researching. There’s people in places that he’s researched, whether that be professional, collegiate, the things we’ve done in the past here.”
O’Neil respects the way Sheppard has communicated the standard and the scheme in Detroit over the past two offseason.
“He’s done an unbelievable job not only stamping (the defense) with what believe in as far as how we’re going to play—what’s our defensive identity, what we want to put on tape—but also schematically. And that’s not just something you can take first time, you’ve got to go through it to realize what do you truly believe in.”
Talented player who plays football vs. Football players with talent
Just thought this was a very interesting line from O’Neil when talking about the players he has in their safety room after spending an offseason preparing for insurance behind Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph.
“There’s talented guys that play football, and there’s football players with talent. That’s who we are. We have football players with talent. And we’ve got guys that are highly competitive. We’ve got guys that are willing to do the dirty work, okay. We’ve got guys that are tough. In my opinion, you win a lot of football games when you possess those type of guys, and I’m excited about it.”
