NFC Notes: Jameson Williams, Kelvin Sheppard, Lions, Bears Staff Moves

Bears

• Kevin Fishbain of The Athletic doesn’t see veteran TE Gerald Everett back with the team next season as the Bears can save a $6.5 million cap hit in 2025 and incur only $1 million of dead cap by letting him go.
• According to Brad Biggs, the Bears are expected to promote assistant strength coach Pierre Ngo to head strength and conditioning coach.
• Biggs also reports Chicago is expected to hire former Giants assistant Anthony Blevins as an assistant special teams coach.
• The Bears are also expected to name defensive quality control coach Kevin Koch their new assistant linebackers coach, per Biggs. 

Lions 

The Lions promoted LBs coach Kelvin Sheppard to defensive coordinator following the departure of Aaron Glenn. Sheppard said he elected to stay in Detroit because of HC Dan Campbell. 

“It’s the reason I chose to stay here over other opportunities. It would have been almost impossible to take another job,” Sheppard said, via Prideofdetroit.com. 

Veteran coach Dom Capers was the Lions’ senior defensive assistant in 2021, which was the first year of Sheppard’s coaching career in Detroit. Sheppard said Capers was instrumental to his development as a coach. 

“Dom Capers was exceptional,” Sheppard said. “Showing me everything he told me. ‘Don’t just be boxed in. Look at this. I want to show you how I built two franchises, two startups, two expansions.’ Just having guys willing to pour into me, it’s the reason I go about my business the way I do and making sure I’m pouring back into others.”

Sheppard said their defensive line will be a big focus of his system. 

“Everything you do on defense starts with the front,” Sheppard said. “Just look at the final guys in the championship game. It’s not like I’m telling some secret. Everything you do on defense starts with the front. It starts in the trenches, in both the run and the pass game.”

Lions

•  The NFL told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that WR Jameson Williams will not face discipline after being found with an unlicensed gun during a traffic stop last year, with a league spokesperson saying the matter is “closed.”
• Williams was a passenger in a car driven by his brother with both men carrying guns. Williams’s brother was licensed to carry a concealed weapon but Williams did not. He was handcuffed but not arrested, nor was he charged with a crime.