While Detroit Lions defensive coordinator heads into 2026 with plenty to prove, the young coach has apparently already drawn a lot of attention from other team’s coaches and general managers.
Over at The Athletic, NFL reporter and analyst Jordan Rodrigue put together a list of assistant coaches from every team who could break out in 2026. Not only did she list Sheppard as her choice for the Lions, but she added a pretty interesting note from earlier this offseason.
“At league meetings in the spring,
Sheppard was among the assistant coaches drawing buzz among head coaches and general managers,” Rodriguez wrote. “His energy, apparent buy-in from players and increased experience in the role in his second season have both Sheppard and the Lions’ defense set up well for a bounce-back 2026.”
It’s easy to forget amidst Detroit’s second-half slide last year that early in 2025, Sheppard was getting a ton of praise for producing a top-five defense in the first half of the season. This offseason, he drew an interview for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job and believes he was close to landing the gig.
But despite the hype this offseason, Sheppard still has a lot to prove entering just his second year as an NFL coordinator. While he certainly has the personality and leadership qualities of a good coach, he’ll have to put together a full, strong season of defensive play-calling, scheme adjustment, and player development to turn that hype into actual opportunities.
Onto the rest of today’s Notes:
- Our Feed Post of the Day comes from CubsLionsFanInCali, who continues a discussion from this week’s PODcast, and questions whether Caleb Williams will every truly be a top-10 quarterback in this league:
- Jared Goff joined the NFL Network show “The Insiders” for a brief interview. I’ll have a write-up on one interesting thing he said, but if you want to get a head start, you can watch the whole thing here:
- One Detroit Lions fan, Joel Walkowski, wrote a book about the life of a Lions fan and how it shaped him as a person. The Detroit Free Press has a story about Walkowski here, and the book—entitled “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man”— is available for purchase here.
- Here’s a fun video of Lions players trying to convey their football position (or desired position) wordlessly:
- CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan posted best and worst-case scenarios for every NFL team. It’s not very specific in what that looks like, but it’s an interesting conversation nonetheless.
