| Detroit Free Press
Detroit Lions get Christmas gifts; is victory over Tom Brady in his sock?
Free Press sports writers Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez distribute gifts to the Detroit Lions and predict the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Carlos Monarrez and Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press
Darrell Bevell is out. Robert Prince is inside. It’s the Detroit Lions will go – for at least a week – with their third head coach of the season.
Prince will take over as head coach in Saturday’s game against Tampa Bay Buccaneers after Bevell, who was appointed interim coach when Matt Patricia was fired last month, was considered a close, high-risk contact for a confirmed positive case of COVID- 19.
Lions (5-9) will also not have four defensive assistants on Saturday: defensive coordinator Cory Undlin, defense coach Bo Davis, lineback coach Ty McKenzie and defense coach Steve Gregory due to COVID protocols.
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Prince is a former offensive college coordinator at Boise State and the longest serving assistant coach in Lions. He joined Jim Caldwell’s team in 2014, was hired by Patricia in 2018 and is in his seventh season as a Lions receiver coach and in season 13 in the NFL overall.
“He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had,” said receiver Danny Amendola earlier in the season. “He brings the juice every day, leaves the guys with the right mindset day after day. Meetings, training, games and an amazing coach to play with. I love him so much. Really, very happy to be playing for him.”
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Prince’s tortuous training road took him from small colleges like Humboldt State and Fort Lewis College to the Japanese X League, where he was offensive coordinator / quarterback coach in 1996-97 for the NFL.
He spent three seasons as an offensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons in 2004-06 and three more training wide receivers for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Seattle Seahawks before returning to college as game coordinator for passes for Colorado in 2010.
While Prince will assume the role of head coach, quarterback coach Sean Ryan will make the offensive plays in Bevell’s absence, and assistant coach Evan Rothstein will take care of the defensive plays. Earlier this week, the team fired special team coordinator Brayden Coombs.
Neither Ryan nor Rothstein were players at any level, although Ryan is a longtime NFL assistant. Rothstein mainly worked behind the scenes on research and analysis projects, but Bevell said he was “our most experienced person in terms of our defense”.
“I think the most important part is who will be able to communicate clearly, who has the best control over information,” said Bevell. “Evan is very, very experienced. He is already involved in game day operations. Communications are very crisp and clear with him with some of the game management things he is already doing. So, he is already in situations of high pressure helping, so it seemed natural to him. “
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Bevell, Undlin, Davis, McKenzie and Gregory began a minimum five-day quarantine period on Tuesday, after team linebacker Anthony Pittman and an unidentified assistant coach tested positive for COVID-19.
Bevell said that all coaches will end their quarantine on Sunday, and would have been able to participate in a game that day if the NFL complied with the team’s request to move Saturday’s shot.
The NFL changed games just for health and safety reasons this season, leaving Lions to work with a shell of a defensive team against future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady and the Buccaneers blast.
While Rothstein, who started his career as an assistant student at SUNY Cortland in 2006 and joined Lions as a quality control coach for special teams in 2012 before moving into special projects two years later, will take care of Undlin’s primary roles as coordinator defensive, Lions have responsibilities transferred from some of their other employees.
Assistant defender Tony Carter will coach defenders on match day, minority assistant coach William Clay Ford, Ty Warren, will work with the defensive line and football research director Dave Corrao will train linebackers.
Bevell said that he and his assistants will continue to meet with the players and participate in the game planning virtually.
“As far as day to day is concerned, until the day of the game, we will be following our same rules,” he said. “Again, today, I did our normal installation of the red area today. We are watching the training virtually. We are talking, making corrections with the coaches later, we still have all of our meetings. Everything is exactly the same. The meetings (from Friday) will be the same. I just won’t be able to be there on game day. “
Instead, Bevell, who will become the first coach to lose a game due to the COVID-19 protocols, will watch the isolated game on Saturday in his hotel room.
“It is super disappointing,” he said. “I’m frustrated. Since we started, my tests have been negative. So there’s that whole part, like you don’t quite understand everything that comes with it. And there’s that impulse you want to be there. I feel exactly like Matthew (Stafford said last week when asked why he’s playing because of an injury). I want to be there to help my guys. I feel like I’m letting them down because I’m not there and all these emotions are things for which you’re going through ”.
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.