Pepper Johnson: Detroit Lions will win with Matt Patricia

Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Detroit Lions prep for 3rd preseason game: What to watch for Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez preview the Detroit Lions' third preseason game, Friday against the Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla. Recorded Wednesday, Aug. 22.

To everyone worried about how much the Detroit Lions have practiced this summer, and how physical those practices have been, former Lions linebacker and Detroit Mackenzie star Pepper Johnson says you’re missing the point.

More padded practices are necessary, Johnson said, to teach the proper way to play a violent game.

“It was the whole meaning of pads in the first place,” Johnson told the Free Press in a phone interview Wednesday. “Pads are for your protection. And as soon as people get back to realizing that and explaining that to the players, to the fans, to everyone that the pads are for your protection more than anything else, (the better they’ll be). So while guys are wanting to run around in T-shirts and shorts, it’s still football.”

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Johnson has long been an advocate of more padded practices, which he said he took part in virtually every day as a player under Bill Parcells.

But having gone on to coach 17 NFL seasons, including 14 with the New England Patriots — most of those for or with first-year Lions coach Matt Patricia — Johnson said there’s risk that comes with a change in coaching styles like the one the Lions are going through now.

Patricia was hired in February to replace Jim Caldwell, who was known as a players coach during his four seasons in Detroit.

“He has to watch himself because that’s what he knows, and that’s how he feels what it takes to get the team to the next level to get them in the postseason, but do the players understand that?” Johnson said. “And if the players don’t understand that, you kind of get mutiny, you get a rebellion that you really don’t know why. It’s not like they’re going to just not do it, but they’re not playing for themselves, for their teammates and for their coaches. They’re like, coaches over here and players over there. That’s not a good measuring cup for a good team.”

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The Lions have slogged through the first four weeks of training camp and on Friday they’ll get their most important test of the preseason when they visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for their third exhibition game.

Starters are expected to play about a half, and coming off an uninspiring loss to the New York Giants in which it looked like camp had taken a toll on their legs, the Lions are hoping for better things.

“I think there are some things we need to fix, for sure,” wide receiver Golden Tate said. “I’m confident that with the personnel we have in here that we’re going to get better, get better fast. We have a really high standard here. It’s not going to be lowered no matter what the case is, so we’ve just got to dig deep, fix what we need to fix and come out and play.”

Patricia downplayed concern about his team’s practice habits this week.

“I don’t think our practices are long, I don’t think they’re short, I think they’re just practice,” he said. “I think that’s what it is and I think we’re just trying to get good evaluations of people.”

And Johnson, who’s back living in the Detroit area as he awaits his next coaching job, said his experience working alongside Patricia in New England has him convinced that Patricia will turn around a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in going on 27 years.

“I think giving him enough time, yes, he will,” Johnson said. “And this first year, it’s not going to judge it. Hopefully it does not mark him one way or another. And I’m not saying bad or good. Really I’m saying either way it goes, cause I’m quite sure all you guys and everybody, himself included, would like for him to go on to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl his first year, but I still don’t think that marks him.

“I think the second year, the sophomore year … I think that’s really the makeup of who that coach is, that player, everybody. You can have enough of a notch on your shoulder or blessed in the aspect where you can go out there and perform for a year, but how do you repeat it? How do you build off of it? How do you not let the stars and the confetti change any of your work habits? I think that’s the true testament.”

Johnson joined the Patriots in 2000 as assistant linebackers coach and coached either linebackers or defensive line for the team until 2013. When Patricia took over as defensive coordinator in 2012, Johnson served as his linebackers coach for two seasons before leaving to coach the Buffalo Bills defensive line.

In New England, he got to know Patricia as “a good student” and “a good learner” and someone whose work ethic will never be compromised.

“That pencil in his ear, he’s not just writing down situations and play calls and things that happened, he takes notes on a lot of different things and he asks questions,” Johnson said. “So I don’t think you guys got just a little lump in the rug just to pass time till you find another coach, I think you got a good one.”

As for Johnson, the 54-year-old said he hopes to return to the coaching ranks soon, perhaps as an assistant in the startup All American Football League.

After one season in Buffalo, Johnson spent two years coaching the New York Jets' defensive line until he was fired after the 2016 season. Johnson said he never got an explanation for that decision, and he felt like a “scapegoat” for the Jets’ disappointing record that year.

“I’m a prideful guy and to get fired is, it kind of deflates you,” said Johnson, who spent last offseason training NFL players, including Shaq Lawson, and draft prospects for IMG, and who markets Vitamin B1 patches to athletes and through his website. “I know this might sound bad, but I’m quite sure dealing with other folks from Detroit you kind of understand what I mean, but now I also have like a chip on my shoulders cause it makes you feel like something you wasn’t doing right.”

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Despite Johnson’s ties to Patricia, he was never in the mix to join the Lions’ staff this year. Patricia wanted to have his old boss, Paul Pasqualoni, on staff, and Johnson left New England in part to try and climb the coaching ranks and prove himself away from Bill Belichick’s shadow.

Johnson played 10 of his 13 NFL seasons with Belichick as his head or assistant coach, then worked for him for all those years in New England. The ultimate goal, he said, is to win a Super Bowl as a coordinator or head coach.

“I wanted to see if I could do it away,” Johnson said. “I felt like I was ready for that. But I don’t think a lot of other people thought I was ready for that. They don’t know. They don’t know what we actually do over there with the Patriots that everybody has to really understand the game. If you don’t, Belichick, he don’t really like babysitting people. He won’t keep you around there, and it’s not just the players but the coaches also.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!