Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Shepard has drawn a lot of criticism for how his defense has performed through the first month of the 2026 season. But following a Week 5 win in Arizona, the Cardinals coaching staff praised Shepard for his defensive game plan, calling it “unique” and “fascinating.”
“That was pretty unique,” Cardinals offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said of the Lions bracketing both WR Michael Wilson and TE Trey McBride. “I’ve been doing this a while— and it’s funny,
the closest thing I ever saw was, we were playing the Ravens with Davante Adams, and I think there were, like, two to three guys on him the whole time. We were working on all these things we thought were going to happen, but they said, ‘nope, we’re going to take him away.’ […] But yeah, it was fascinating.”
Here’s a clip of Hackett discussing Sheppard’s approach, via Ari Meirov:
The Cardinals entered this game with McBride and Wilson as their primary offensive weapons, with McBride accounting for 38% of the Cardinals’ offensive targets this season and Wilson right behind at 30%. No other Cardinals offensive player accounts for more than 9.5%.
When the Cardinals got into third-and-long situations, Sheppard countered by running bracket coverage on both McBride and Wilson, forcing quarterback Jacoby Brissett to beat them another way, and outside of the first drive, this strategy was highly effective.
Here’s a look at the Cardinals’ second possession of the game near the end of the first quarter on third-and-7. As you can see in the screenshots below, Lions LB Jack Campbell lines up in press vs. McBride (Yellow), and safety Chuck Clark has over-the-top and inside responsibilities. On the opposite side of the field, Wilson (orange) is bracketed by CB D.J. Reed on the outside and safety Keith Abney with over-the-top and inside coverage:
On the next third down, the Cardinals need 12 yards, so the Lions play a deeper zone, but on the following two third-down plays the Lions use bracket coverage again and again:
In the end, the Lions’ bracket coverage on the Cardinals’ two primary weapons forced the Cardinals to look elsewhere, and they couldn’t convert on 10 of their 18 third-down attempts, including five straight three-and-outs.
While Sheppard has certainly deserved some criticism for how the defense has performed through five weeks, he also deserves his share of praise for his defensive strategy against the Cardinals, given how effective it was.
