Brad Holmes is not messing around anymore
The Lions are changing. Not tweaking. Not adjusting. Changing. And if you have been paying attention this offseason, you already know this does not feel like the same team that limped to 9-8 and missed the playoffs.
Dan Campbell said it himself after the season ended. Things had to change. And Brad Holmes listened. No joint practices. No rookie minicamp. Holmes skipped the Annual League Meeting entirely to focus on the 2026 NFL Draft. The draft itself looked like a return to what we expect from this front office after a rough 2025 class.
Now the schematic changes are coming into focus. Four of them stand out, and they point to a team that could look nothing like what opponents have seen the last few years.
Heavier personnel groupings are coming
Drew Petzing is the new offensive coordinator. He comes from Arizona where he led the NFL in both 13 personnel and 12 personnel usage. About 26% of Arizona’s offensive snaps were in 12 personnel. Another 12.5% were in 13 personnel.
Compare that to the Lions, who spent 62% of their snaps in 11 personnel last year.
You are not going to see multiple tight ends on every snap. But you are going to see it far more often than Detroit has done in the past.
Gap schemes create downhill chaos
Those heavier personnel groupings are not just window dressing. They open the door for more gap scheme looks. Instead of stretching defenses horizontally with a wide zone, gap schemes create vertical displacement and downhill movement.
Pair that with under center formations, bootlegs, and play action, and linebackers suddenly face impossible decisions. Step downhill against the run, or stay deep and risk giving up five yards before contact. Those hesitations create explosive passing windows.
More importantly, gap schemes open up wider lanes for Jahmyr Gibbs to get into space where he does the most damage.
Mike Kafka wants to throw it deep
The explosive passing windows that heavy formations create tie directly into what passing game coordinator Mike Kafka brings to the table. Kafka helped make the New York Giants more of a deep-throwing team during his time there.
Detroit has made no secret about wanting to throw the ball deeper in 2026. The goal is conflict. Make defenses commit to stopping the run, then punish them over the top.
That opens up opportunity for Jameson Williams to get downfield and do his thing. Greg Dortch and Isaac TeSlaa give the Lions additional options to stretch the field. Those three offensive changes together should make this a fundamentally different unit.
The defense is going nickel-heavy
On the other side of the ball, Detroit is making a major philosophical change. For years, the Lions leaned into being one of the heaviest base defenses in football. With Alex Anzalone on the field, the personnel fit.
That is changing.
The defensive coordinator has talked throughout the offseason about installing multiple defensive packages that borrow from both 4-3 and 3-4 personnel while dramatically expanding what Detroit can do in the nickel. That matters because today’s NFL is played in subpackages. Some of the league’s most successful defenses spend close to 70% of their snaps in nickel.
Detroit appears ready to join them. Instead of keeping three linebackers on the field, the slot defender becomes a much bigger part of the defense. That is a huge shift, and it changes how this defense will look on Sundays.
The real point here
The biggest thing is not that the Lions want heavier personnel or more nickel or more deep passes. The biggest thing is that Detroit appears far less interested in being predictable than it was a year ago.
The 2023, 2024, and 2025 Lions knew exactly who they were. Run the football. Play from base defense. Out-physical opponents. It worked until it did not.
The 2026 version wants to win in multiple ways. If one game calls for 13 personnel, they can do it. If another requires spreading the field, they can do that too. If an opposing offense forces nickel for 70% of the afternoon, they are prepared.
After what happened during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the Lions need adaptability more than anything. Adding these wrinkles puts opponents in a position where they are facing a team they have not seen before.
But it all has to work. The Lions still have to go out and execute this plan. We’re about a month and a half from the NFL season. Let’s see how it looks when the games start.
Does this feel like the kind of overhaul that fixes what went wrong last season, or is this just a different way to fall short? Drop your take below.
