From how Jameson Williams can “fix” a bad play to a Lions depth linebacker who has been impressing—here are the top 7 quotes from Lions coordinators this week.
As always on Thursdays, we’re going to take the most important moments from the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator press conferences. This week’s topics range from Jameson Williams’ ability to save a play to a bunch of Aaron Glenn look-alikes as the team gets prepared for Sunday’s contest against the Indianapolis Colts.
Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson
On how Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs “fix” the offense:
“They are erasers, they’re fixers. If things aren’t quite right, they make it right and he (Williams) is certainly giving us that element in the passing game and I think defenses take notice of that […] I think they’ve got great instincts of how to make people miss in the open field and I think you find defenders take poor angles when trying to bring them down in space as well. So, I think that’s a great element that they bring to the table, no doubt.”
Thought this was a really interesting answer from Johnson, talking about how sometimes the play call is wrong or they get an unfavorable matchup with the defensive play call. But Williams and Gibbs are such dynamic playmakers that they can turn a bad matchup into a big play with their speed and instincts. Johnson was also asked to pick which player was faster, but he didn’t take the bait.
“I know where I put my money, but I’m not going to say that publicly.”
On Christian Mahogany’s growth:
“You’ve seen Christian grow immensely. I really wish we, as a staff, really wish, he would have been available there in the preseason because those would’ve been huge games to really get a gauge for where he’s at right now, and it’s a little bit harder in practice. Sometimes we have pads on, sometimes we don’t. But, from the one-on-one aspect, the pass-pro and run blocking, you see flashes of immense potential right there. So, we’ll continue to try to find where we can slip him in to get him more experience, but he’s a guy that we have high hopes for.”
While Johnson lamented the fact that Mahogany missed training camp, he pointed to Detroit’s practice style—which includes a lot of one-on-ones even this deep into the season—as evidence that Mahogany is developing. Later, we’ll hear about another player on the other side of the ball who is also benefiting from those one-on-ones.
Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn
On the challenge of Anthony Richardson this week:
“The number one thing that we talked about as a defensive staff and with the players is, discipline has to be on high alert this week. Because of the nature of their offense every play has a run-pass option in it, so our eyes have to be in the right place on every snap, and then our ability to get the ball down has to be important. One thing they do a good job of is, they get a hat for a hat for the most part, so we have to do the little things better than they do. When I say that, it means once they get a hat for a hat, we’ve got to get off blocks and we’ve got to finish on the ball, and they do a good job of getting a hat for a hat.”
The Colts really leaned into Richardson as a rusher last week (10 rushes, 32 yards, 2 TDs) with many of those being designed runs, and as Glenn put it, that means a run-pass option with just about every play. Detroit will have to be disciplined in their rush lanes, steady in keeping to their assignments, and make sure they aren’t tempted by the eye-candy the offense is giving them.
On newly-added LB Ezekiel Turner’s Lions debut vs. the Jaguars
“One thing that he does a really good job of, what he was known for, is his special teams performance, and then you look at the skillset and his ability to go out there and cover tight ends and cover backs, which we saw in practice, what he did, and good thing that we do is we have one-on-one situations, we have competitive periods, and that’s when we actually saw that, and when you see that, you can see you can utilize that player in certain situations, so that’s what we tried to do with him.”
Detroit’s linebacking corps has been decimated by injury with Derrick Barnes, Alex Anzalone, and Jalen Reeves-Maybin currently on IR. While the onus will be mostly on Jack Campbell and Malcolm Rodriguez to carry the heaviest workload, it sounds like Turner could be part of the solution, as well. While he’ll primarily be on special teams, it sounds like he could be helpful as a coverage linebacker.
On fans dressing up as him at Ford Field:
“This is getting out of hand again. My daughter sent that, and I think it’s actually funny to be able to see that, so I got a kick out of that. So, it was good […] The one thing I did see that my wife actually mentioned is, they have the yellow striping on the glasses, so they were very detailed. So, I’m sure they can come and help us, how detailed that was.”
If you missed it, a handful of fans poked fun at Glenn for his rain-covered glasses at Green Bay:
These fans are doing their best Aaron Glenn impression lol pic.twitter.com/iAvRQgqTdT
— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) November 17, 2024
Good to see that Glenn had a sense of humor about it.
Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp
On whether the new kickoff rule has been a success:
“I think overall, I think that there’s a lot of positives about the play. It’s been safe, I think it’s been a lot safer, I don’t have the data but from what I understand it’s been a lot safer. They are getting some more returns. I think that they’ll make some modifications based off – they’re getting a lot of information and data so that they can make, really some good decisions at the end of this year, which they really couldn’t do last year. They didn’t know how it was going to look, so there’s kind of at least a baseline, they’ve set that on the play and given them a chance to move forward with it. I think there’s a lot of positives. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s a really good start.”
It’s easy to be cynical about the new kickoff, seeing as teams are still mostly opting to kick it out of the end zone. Touchbacks are at 66.2% through 11 weeks, which is down from 73.0% last year, but that’s not likely as much of a change as some were hoping.
But as Fipp points out, they’re getting important data, and as the weather gets colder and windier, the ball may not travel as far and we could see return rates increase in the final two months of the season. I think he’s right to expect some changes in 2025, but hopefully not a complete trashing of the new system.
On Turner’s special teams reputation
“He really has a very similar game to Jalen Reeves-Maybin and they both play personal protector, they’ve actually both played in the same punt system. Us and Arizona kind of use the same terminology, system, very similar in that regard. They are also very aggressive with the fakes and all that stuff, so he has experience doing all that for them. Just the way he covers, the way he plays the game is very similar to Jalen Reeves-Maybin, so it was like just a natural slide in and fit. So, it was an easy decision for us, he’s super smart and intelligent, I got a lot of confidence and faith and trust in him already in a very short period of time. The special teams coach from Arizona sent me a text message and said, ‘I don’t know if I trust another guy more than I trust him.’ And that’s a guy I respect quite a bit.
Turner certainly sounds like he’s here to stay, and to get that kind of endorsement from his former special teams coach —Turner played six seasons with the Cardinals—certainly carries a lot of weight. He’s only been with the team for two weeks, but it seems Detroit plans on keeping him on the roster until at least Reeves-Maybin comes back.
