Your physical traits will get you on the field in Kelvin Sheppard's defense. Your mental traits will keep you on it. Sheppard has made his players aware of three non-negotiable expectations heading into his first season as the Lions defensive coordinator: "I told them the first thing first, you get down to the A's."
"And what I mean with the A's, it starts with your Assignment. You have to know what to do. It's your Alignment. You have to know where to be. It's the Attention to detail," Sheppard said last week. "And then obviously the last thing is the execution."
For Sheppard, execution will be graded by the film: "What are we seeing when we hit the play button? Not what's coming out of your mouth and you telling us what you can do. It's showing us what you can do."
"And all the guys have bought into that," he said. "It's a culture that's been set in place here pretty much from the day I got here, and it's just carried over and it's starting to emphasize certain things within our structure ... and our new system now."
Sheppard is taking over a defense from Aaron Glenn that ranked seventh in the NFL in scoring last season despite losing numerous starters to injuries. In the front seven alone, the Lions finished the year without their top two edge rushers in Aidan Hutchinson and Marcus Davenport, their top defensive tackle in Alim McNeill and one of their top linebackers in Derrick Barnes.
All of those players will be back this season, joined by defensive tackle and first-round pick Tyleik Williams. Plus DJ Reader, Levi Onwuzurike, Roy Lopez and Josh Paschal in the trenches, and Alex Anzalone and Jack Campbell at linebacker.
New defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers said the talent in his room "had a lot to do" with his decision to come to Detroit after six years in the same role with the Buccaneers.
"As long as I've been in this league, you look for good opportunities and you're walking in with some talented guys and guys you'd like to work with," Rodgers said. "That had something to do with it, plus the culture Coach Campbell has created here. And just as a coach, you always want to learn."
Rodgers, 55, was the defensive line coach for the Dolphins when Sheppard was a linebacker for the team in 2014, and remembers him as "a smart player." Now he's coaching alongside him in Detroit.
"To see the growth in him over the years, the way he runs our meetings, the structure of our defenses, the way he talks to the players, I'm just really impressed," Rodgers said. "The openness. You're coming in and sitting down with a team that won 15 games last year, but the eagerness, everybody's still in there trying to learn: Can we do this better? Trying to do that better. That's impressive."
Sheppard, 37, said he doesn't feel any different in his elevated role than he did as the assistant linebackers coach in year one under Dan Campbell, which is part of the culture of collaboration that both Sheppard and Rodgers are referring to.
"I feel like I get the same respect I did then, from my players, my peers, as far as the coaching staff, the front office," Sheppard said. "I don’t think a role should deem the respect that you get, and that’s not just in this field. I don’t think the janitor should be treated any different than Ms. Sheila (Ford Hamp). That’s how I was raised. That’s what I believe in.
"So, me moving up in rank in my job is not gonna change who I am, and I think the players feel that and they see it, and that’s where the authenticity piece picks up over a title. If you know somebody’s real, authentic, and this guy’s all-in to help me, I’m gonna listen and do whatever he says."
The only real differences, said Sheppard, are that he's "sitting at the head of the table and not next to A.G" in defensive meetings, "and then on the grass, everybody’s looking to you."
"It’s not just the linebackers anymore. It’s not just the mike, the will, the sam. The corner may have a question for you, the safety, the nose tackle, and you gotta be ready on a dime to give those players an answer," Sheppard said. "And that goes back to the accountability piece. Just like I told the players, 'We hold you accountable, hold me accountable. If I told you to do something and it changes, hold me to that. Why did it change? Always ask why.'
"As far as stature and status and things like that, I’ve never viewed that as making somebody superior to the next person."