When Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp ran into one of his colleagues at the NFL combine last week, the coach told Fipp, “I’ve been watching your film all offseason.”
“I’m like, ‘Hey, stay away,’” Fipp joked with reporters last week.
The Lions had one of the best all-around special teams units in the NFL last season. They finished sixth in Rick Gosselin’s cumulative special teams rankings, ranked second in punt return average and converted all three of their fake punts.
But Fipp was less worried about his colleague stealing his schemes than he was his players.
Three of the Lions’ top coverage specialists plus kick returner Justin Jackson will be unrestricted free agents next week, and the team’s vaunted special teams units could look significantly different in 2023.
“I do know, on special teams, the roster changes every year and that’s a part of the deal,” Fipp said. “That’s part of the challenge is figuring out a way with this group here of how we can make them operate as best we possibly can in these four different phases. So anyway, it’ll be a new challenge this year regardless of who we get back and who we don’t, but anytime you have guys who are productive players and play with a lot of energy and spirit, it’s difficult to lose those types of guys.”
BACKUP QB OPTIONS:Why Teddy Bridgewater may be best fit in NFL free agency
Linebacker Josh Woods, who led the Lions (and tied for seventh in the NFL) with 14 special teams tackles last season, should be one of the most coveted coverage specialists on the market.
Woods was a special teams captain for the Lions in 2022 and is in line for a healthy raise after playing for $1.5 million last season. Nick Bellore, a former Lion and top special teams player with the Seattle Seahawks who is seven years older than Woods, signed a two-year extension worth $6.6 million last month.
Chris Board, who led the Lions in special teams snaps and finished second with 10 tackles, is expected to test the market as an unrestricted free agent after he played less than expected on defense last season, and Jackson (fifth in special teams tackles, fourth in snaps) and safety C.J. Moore (fourth in tackles, fifth in snaps) also will be free agents.
The Lions will not be starting from scratch on special teams in 2023. Four-core coverage player Jason Cabinda, punt returner Kalif Raymond and punter Jack Fox remain under contract, and the Lions can retain three other key special teams players — cornerback Bobby Price, linebacker Anthony Pittman and long snapper Scott Daly — by tendering them exclusive rights contracts as free agents this week.
But the team also is in the market for a kicker to compete with Michael Badgley for the starting job. And while the Lions might prefer to take one in this year’s draft — Michigan’s Jake Moody and Maryland’s Chad Ryland, formerly of Eastern Michigan, are two of the top kickers available — Fipp said there are “some great free agent kickers out there this year.”
Matt Gay of the Los Angeles Rams (28 of 30 field goals last season), Chase McLaughlin of the Indianapolis Colts (9 of 12 on 50-plus-yarders in 2022) and veterans Robbie Gould of the San Francisco 49ers and Matt Prater of the Arizona Cardinals are the top kickers in free agency.
JUST DOWN THE ROAD:Michigan’s Jake Moody would love to kick for Lions: ‘That would be pretty cool’
The Lions let Prater walk in free agency in 2021.
“There is some security from my standpoint of like, ‘Hey, this guy’s done it, he’s done it at a high level and he’s done it consistently for some period of time at a high level,’ and it gives you some comfort in knowing that that’s probably not going to change a whole lot from that, good or bad,” Fipp said. “But then when you get a younger guy you also are getting a player who’s young and fresh and healthy, hopefully, and he’s got a great future out in front of him and you’ve got him for four or five years before you even have to re-sign him, so you know you’ve got him for a while there. So there’s benefits to really all the above. I personally have never shied away from a younger player. I think there’s a lot of young talent out there.”
The Lions could go young on their coverage units, too, which teams tend to fill with cost-controlled players from the draft, though they entered Wednesday with a healthy cap surplus of about $23 million and have reaped rewards from their willingness to invest in special teams in the recent past.
“I don’t really think you ever really replace one (player) with another, but you just hope that with the guys that come in, you can get the same results or better,” Fipp said. “And how you go about doing that depends on who they are.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.