New Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell spoke with the gathered media in Allen Park before Tuesday’s OTA session. Among the highlights of Bevell’s Q&A session was the veteran coach laying out his four fundamental principles of offense.
He rattled them off in order of importance.
- “No. 1 is protecting the football. It’s going to be all about the ball.”
- “We’ll always be about running the football.”
- “We want to be a tough, hard-nosed football team and be able to exert our will on our opponent.”
- “We want to be explosive in the passing game. When we throw the ball, we want to be able to throw it down the field and get big plays.”
The bones of those tenets are all over the Lions offense already. A strong running game emerged last season with rookie RB Kerryon Johnson dashing and darting behind the team’s best offensive line in years. The toughness up front with first-round linemen Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow makes the Lions offensive line unpleasant for opponents to face. And Matthew Stafford throws the deep shot as well as just about anyone, with Kenny Golladay emerging as a big-play threat on the outside to catch some of those.
