Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice, fantasy analyst Matt Harmon and NFL writer Charles McDonald discuss how the Lions defensive coordinator kept his squad together despite a number of significant injuries to key players – but managed to still help Detroit to the number one seed in the NFC. Hear the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Who was your assistant coach of the year in 2024?
My shortlist is about 10 long, so I’m curious what you guys what you guys went to.
I actually really wanted to give it to Liam Cohen, obviously I’ve been talking about that a lot, uh, over the course of this season.
I really strongly considered Joe Brady too from the Bills, but I ultimately ended up going with Aaron Glenn on this one, mostly just because maybe again, I’m, I’m influenced by week 18 and maybe if I hadn’t have seen that game, I might have actually given this to the defensive coordinator on the other side of the ball and Brian Flores, but Just what they’ve been able to withstand and overcome on that side.
But no, I think Glenn has just done a great job with keeping, keeping that unit true to itself, which I think is so impressive as a coach because there’s like, I, I thought the shot of him, uh, at towards the end of the game.
like on the bench kind of with his arm up, like that should have been the thumbnail of that win for the Detroit Lions because it was just such a hats off performance, uh, from an individual coach and an individual unit there defensively.
And like I said, they have dealt with more injuries on that side of the ball.
You know, then, then you could possibly really fathom for any unit coming in.
And it’s been at all three levels.
They’ve gotten some guys back like Anzalone was back on on Sunday night and he definitely made a difference, but still, they’ve gotten contributions from a bunch of different players.
The fact that they just take a Meek Robertson, like a castoff from the Raiders, who was primarily playing as your slot corner and hey, just go cover just.
And Jefferson on over 80% of your routes primarily in man coverage and we talked that game for 40 minutes and like his name never even came up because it’s like, who knew he’d be such a key player and I think obviously it’s a testament to the player, but I think it is a testament to the coaching staff too like, yep, we believe in you and you can do this and like, obviously.
He’s got like one of the quotes of the year, you know, like what you can’t bury what comes from the dirt or whatever is like his Instagram caption or something like that.
That was a bar.
That was great.
I mean, come on, you gotta, you gotta, yeah, they said you can’t, they tried to bury you, but you can’t bury what growth from the dirt.
I was like, Whoa, yeah, that, that was better than the Geno Smith.
Like I, they, they, they tried to what what the whole like call back or whatever, yeah, I didn’t write back.
Yeah, I mean, come on, that’s good ones every year.
We’re getting good ones every single year, uh, and yeah, I mean we’re getting great defensive performances like.
Almost on a weekly basis, uh, from this Lions team, and I, I, again, it’s part of what you said about with Dan Campbell, I think has to trickle down to Aaron Glenn here.
Just, it’s the identity and it’s, it’s every single week leaning into that philosophically, schematically.
I just, I think it’s so impressive that the guy has dealt with this many injuries on that side of the ball and it’s like, nope, we’re still just gonna, we’re gonna throw cover zero at the Vikings with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison 14 times in a game.
That’s unbelievable stuff.