Detroit Lions Coordinators' 6 Most Notable Quotes for Vikings Game

As the Detroit Lions prepare for the Minnesota Vikings this week, the team's coordinators met with the media on a variety of topics. Here are the most important takeaways from each coach's media session from Thursday.

Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn

1. For telling his own players not to “replace” Aidan Hutchinson:

“We don't ask the boys to replace Aidan because everyone is their own person, and everyone has different characteristics and abilities. And we ask them to be those guys. We try to position them to be the best players they can be. One thing I'm not going to do and one thing I don't want you to do is disrespect the people who are playing behind him or playing with him because those guys go out in training camp, during OTAs, during the season, they've busted their ass to get a chance to come here and play, And they're going to do a good job for us.”

I know we're guilty of this too, but looking for a “replacement” for Hutchinson is really the wrong approach. Detroit, instead, will lean on different talents in different players.

2. Whether the Lions will have to change the overall plan to accommodate the loss of Hutchinson:

“Every week we put a plan together and the plan is about the players. It's not just about this scheme that we have. And I say it every week, we do everything we can to put the players in the best position where it shows their strengths and it limits their weaknesses. So, that's what we plan to do and that's my job.”

“I tell my boys that we have to be like chameleons. One week we might be brown, another week we might be yellow, another week we might be orange, but the guys we have are smart enough to be able to do that.”

Earlier this week, coach Dan Campbell said one of the reasons he was optimistic about the defense moving forward was Glenn and his ability to adjust to injuries. In the past, Glenn has been very flexible with this defense, and I expect that to continue.

3. How important Aaron Jones is to the Vikings' offense:

“He's hard to deal with. I don't know what his (injury) situation is, but you can tell when he's in there, this O-line has a different mentality as far as blocking downhill. They run this crunch play that's really the strength to create those doubles, and this is a team that wants to be physical when they do it. So that's another added element that they didn't really have before he got there.”

I bring this quote to the table because Jones is dealing with a hip injury and did not practice Wednesday. Jones averaged 4.9 yards per carry this week, but his backup Tyson Chandler averaged just 3.5 yards per carry. If Jones doesn't play this week, that's a huge difference, even if Minnesota trades for Cam Akers earlier this week.

Special teams coordinator Dave Phipp

Note: I thought his comment The recent FG block technique was interesting enough that I turned it into its own article.

4. On the importance of long snapper Hogan Hatten in Jake Betts' early success:

“Velocity is one thing, the next thing to get it down on the spot is position. So, the better the position, the more accurate on the spot, the faster the (jack) fox can get it down, then you're also talking about the laces and if the laces have to be adjusted, it takes time, which again, puts the kicker back a little bit. So, all of these things are really directly affected by the snapper, which is a huge influence on a kicker's success. I know I said that when I got here, you asked me about (former Lions' Matt) Prater and I said that a big part of his challenge, his last year here, in my opinion, was more than the operation. It was him directly.

Phipp feels passionately about the importance of the long snapper when it comes to field goal accuracy, pointing out that the longer the ball can be held and ready to go, the more likely the kicker is to make a field goal. His perspective also provides some clarity on why Matt Prater struggled in his final season in Detroit. Prater made just 75 percent of his kicks that year (his career average is 83.6), largely (according to Phipp) due to the entire operation (Don Muhlbach's rookie season as long snapper last year and Jack Fox's rookie season as holder). Fipp says Hatten has been “outstanding” so far.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson

I also wrote Here is a separate article on Johnson's comments about the joke.

5. Jameson Williams' difference in six weeks:

“I think people are starting to understand that we don't want to single him out. Defenses don't want to single him out because he will make them pay. They're not as fast as that, it's that simple. Hopefully, we'll continue to get these one-on-one matchups because we're very dynamic elsewhere as well. I think early in that game last week, they had more game philosophy to limit guys like Jameson and you saw what our run game did early in that game. Then they started to get downfield and Jamo got some great access man-to-man and he was able to take advantage of that.”

Williams has now truly become the focal point of the offense, where Detroit can dictate what defenses do and if they make any in-game adjustments, act accordingly. He's a real difference maker even when he doesn't get the ball.

6. On Tim Patrick's growing chemistry with Jared Goff:

“Jared, of course, he'd come up to me and be like, 'Man, that's a long goal.' So I feel like a low range to miss him, and then we're with each other almost every week and being able to see him compete against our DBs and create separation, he's been a very consistent splitter in that regard , so it's just rep, rep, rep.”

Johnson spoke glowingly of Patrick, including his natural fit in a receiver room that isn't afraid to block downfield. But I really like the “low range miss him” quote. In a wide receiver room with different skill sets, Patrick is unique in his ability to make those contested catches, and it showed vs. the Cowboys.