Lions notes: Ihedigbo loses starting safety spot

Lions coach Jim Caldwell is fond of saying he uses players in different “packages,” often a polite way of saying they’ve been benched.

That’s the situation in which James Ihedigbo finds himself for the second straight week after he played only three snaps at strong safety as the backup to Isa Abdul-Quddus in Sunday’s18-16 win over the Packers.

Abdul-Quddus got the surprise start in Green Bay, and Ihedigbo was limited primarily to special-teams duty for the first time in 26 games as a Lion.

“Honestly, this is exactly the way I took it,” Ihedigbo said. “Your pride comes before the fall. If you put yourself and say, ‘Oh, this should have been this way, blah, blah, blah,’ that’s not what it’s about. It’s about winning. Coach said, he’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to move some things around just so we can be the best we can be and win games.’ And I was like, ‘Hey, whatever we got to do to win.’ And that’s our mind-set across the board, whatever we got to do to win.”

Ihedigbo had played virtually every defensive snap in the first seven games, but was replaced by Abdul-Quddus for most of the second half of a Week 8 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in London.

Abdul-Quddus is considered a superior pass defender to Ihedigbo and expected to make his second straight start this Sunday against an Oakland Raiders team that has the NFL’s sixth-best passing offense.

Ihedigbo played on defense in goal-line situations against the Packers.

“We try to put guys in the best position according to what we do from a defensive standpoint to excel,” Caldwell said. “And so that could change. There’s going to be several others that you’ll ask the exact same question here in the next week or so.”

Ihedigbo was a captain last week and one of the Lions’ biggest playmakers last year, when he had four interceptions and three forced fumbles in 13 games. He said he thinks he has had “a solid year this far” and referred questions about why he was benched to coaches.

“Do I look like I lost a step?” Ihedigbo said. “I feel great. I’m out there flying around. I feel awesome. If anything, I think it benefits more because it can probably prolong me a little bit.”

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