Lions DB coach Brian Duker hired by the Dolphins

Duker leaves for Miami to be the Dolphins DBs coach and defensive passing game coordinator

The first offseason position coaching change has struck the Detroit Lions. Secondary coach Brian Duker is leaving Drtroit to join the Miami Dolphins in a similar capacity.

Duker has been with the Lions for the entire Dan Campbell tenure. He was the safeties coach before being promoted to defensive backs coach in the 2022 season. He will be the defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator for the Dolphins.

The Lions hired Deshea Tonwsend into that role during the week, so Duker’s replacement is already hires. Townsend’s hiring is expected to be made official soon, along with new defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator Terrell Williams.defensive run game coordinator Terrell Williams.

Dolphins hiring Lions DB coach Brian Duker as secondary coach

Miami adds a new secondary coach.

Since hiring Anthony Weaver to run their defense, the Miami Dolphins have been working to fill out his staff working under him for the 2024 season.

On Saturday, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that the Dolphins are hiring Brian Duker to serve as their secondary coach/pass game coordinator.

Duker spent the last three seasons with the Detroit Lions, serving as the team’s defensive backs coach in 2023. In 2022, he worked with the safeties, and he was a defensive assistant in 2021. Prior to that, he worked with the Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns.

These roles were both held by Renaldo Hill in 2023 in his first season with the team. It will be interesting to see if Hill follows Vic Fangio to the Philadelphia Eagles, finds a new role with the Dolphins or goes elsewhere.

Dan Campbell on firing Lions DBs coach Aubrey Pleasant: ‘Something needed to change’

Campbell stated the secondary needed “a different messenger” in replacing Aubrey Pleasant with safeties coach Brian Duker

A solemn Dan Campbell met the media shortly after the Detroit Lions announced that the team fired defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator Aubrey Pleasant. After praising Pleasant as “a hell of a coach” and wishing him well outside Detroit, Campbell fielded some questions.

The obvious one came first: why Pleasant and why now?

Campbell tried to preemptively answer it.

“We’re in a production-based business and after seven weeks I felt like this change needed to be made,” the head coach stated.

“Something needed to change,” Campbell later added noting that he wanted “a different messenger” to lead and instruct the defensive backs.

Campbell indicated that safeties coach Brian Duker will take over for Pleasant, with defensive quality control coach Addison Lynch also set to become more involved in the secondary.

As for the players, it’s clear Campbell is still bullish on his personnel.

“I still believe in the guys we have. I think we have I know what we have on the back end and I think they’re good enough to help us compete and win,” Campbell said of his injury-riddled secondary.

That statement reaffirms the notion that Campbell and GM Brad Holmes believe the coaching was more of an issue than the players not executing. A similar scenario played out last season when the club relieved offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn from his duties in-season.

The move with Lynn a year ago worked out quite favorably for Campbell and the Lions offense. Here’s hoping that a similar bounce upward comes to the secondary on the NFL’s worst defense with the move to fire Pleasant.

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Safeties coach Brian Duker breaks down ‘perfect fit’ Lions newcomer DeShon Elliott

Duker coached Elliott in Baltimore and offered up a review of what the Lions are getting in their free agent safety

In the latest episode of “Twentyman in the Huddle”, Lions in-house reporter Tim Twentyman welcomes the team’s safeties coach, Brian Duker. The topic turns to new Lions safety DeShon Elliott, who Duker knew quite well from his coaching days in Baltimore before coming to Detroit.

“DeShon is a great player,” Duker said. “I was very excited with him being available just knowing, first and foremost, what kind of person he was and what kind of football player he is.”

Duker quickly asserted why Elliott, who spent his first four seasons with the Ravens, is such a good fit for this Lions team under head coach Dan Campbell.

“He loves football,” Duker proclaimed. “He is all about football. I knew we were going to get a tough player — just going back to some of the things that coach Campbell always talks about, like “grit” being a huge part of us. I knew right away that (Elliott) was going to fit our culture and help perpetuate our culture amongst the team.”

He then discussed more of the tangible on-field football qualities Elliott offers the team.

“I know he’s a really rangy safety,” Duker added. “I know he’s a hard hitter. I know he’s got really good ball skills. I just thought he’s a perfect fit for us.”

Elliott joins third-round pick Kerby Joseph as one of the two new safeties for Duker to work with, alongside veteran Tracy Walker. It’s a group that should perform much better than the secondary saw in 2021, where safety was a major problem area for the Lions.

Detroit Lions hire Todd Wash as DL coach, plus 3 more assistant coaches

The Detroit Lions announced that they have hired Todd Wash as their defensive line coach, as well as three other assistant coaches.

The Detroit Lions announced that they have hired former Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Wash as their defensive line coach, Seth Ryan as an assistant wide receiver coach, as well as Kelvin Shepard and Brian Duker as defensive assistants.

“Wash joins the Lions as the team’s defensive line coach in 2021, his 26th season as a coach and his 15th in the NFL,” the Lions said in a press release. “Wash spent the last eight seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, originally joining the staff as a defensive line coach/run game coordinator in 2013 and serving as the defensive coordinator from 2016-20.”

Wash’s is now the second former defensive coordinator to join the Lions’ staff to coach under first-time coordinator Aaron Glenn — 47-year veteran Dom Capers was hired last weekend as a senior defensive assistant.

What’s most intriguing about the hiring of Wash is that all of his NFL experience is in coaching four-man defensive lines. That suggests the Lions will indeed be shifting their scheme to more of a one-gapping defensive front.

“Ryan joins the Lions as the team’s assistant wide receivers coach in 2021 after spending the past four seasons (2017-20) with the Los Angeles Chargers, serving as a coaching intern from 2017-18 and an offensive quality control coach from 2019-20,” the Lions said.

Ryan was hired into the Chargers organization by new Lions offensive coordinator Anthony Lynn. When Lynn was in Buffalo, he was an assistant head coach/running backs coach/offensive coordinator under Rex Ryan — Seth Ryan’s dad.

But the younger Ryan isn’t coasting on his father’s name. “In his stint in L.A., Ryan worked primarily with the team’s wide receivers and helped guide WRs Mike Williams and Keenan Allen (three) to 1,000-yard seasons in that span,” the Lions continued. “Allen made the Pro Bowl in all four years working with Ryan and produced a franchise-record 104 receptions in 2019. Ryan was a wide receiver at Clemson from 2013-16 and helped the Tigers win the 2016 College Football Playoff National Championship.”

At this time, the Lions have yet to hire a wide receiver’s coach, but several names have been rumored to be connected to the Lions including former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers Hines Ward (with the Jets in 2020) and Antwaan Randel El (who is coaching with Tampa Bay in this weekend’s Super Bowl).

Sheppard’s hiring was leaked out this past weekend, but his role was unknown until today.

“Sheppard joins the Lions as a defensive assistant in 2021, his first position as an NFL coach,” the Lions said. “He was originally selected by the Buffalo Bills in the third round (68th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft out of LSU and split eight seasons (2011-18) with the Bills, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants and Detroit.”

Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic Baltimore tweeted out the Duker news yesterday, but like with Sheppard, his position was not known until today.

“Duker joins the Lions as a defensive assistant in 2021 after spending the last three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens,” the Lions said. “He joined the team in 2018 as defensive staff assistant/coaching analyst, before being promoted in 2019 to coaching analyst – defense. Prior to the Ravens, Duker had stops with the San Francisco 49ers (2016-17) as a defensive analyst and Cleveland Browns (2015-16) as a defensive intern.”

Ravens lose Zachary Orr, Sterling Lucas, Brian Duker as coaching exodus continues

The Baltimore Ravens continue to see the coaching staff poached as Zachary Orr, Brian Duker, and Sterling Lucas get hired elsewhere

The Baltimore Ravens might have a whole new coaching staff by next season if this continues. The Ravens have lost three more young coaches this offseason as the Detroit Lions have hired Brian Duker, and the Jacksonville Jaguars have hired Zachary Orr and Sterling Lucas away from Baltimore, according to Jeff Zrebiec of the Athletic.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have clearly been looking at the Ravens’ staff, hiring away three of the seven coaches that have left Baltimore this offseason. Orr and Lucas will join former Ravens defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who was hired to be the Jaguars’ new defensive coordinator. Orr and Duker had been defensive coaching analysts while Lucas was the team’s defensive assistant.

Puzzlingly, while teams have poached six of Baltimore’s defensive coaches away, defensive coordinator Don Martindale hasn’t gotten an interview for a head coaching position this offseason. While Martindale was in the running for the Giants’ head coaching job last season, New York decided to go in a different direction, hiring Joe Judge. But with the Ravens’ defense once again performing well this season — finishing second in points allowed and seventh in yards allowed — despite an injury- and COVID-19-ravaged depth chart, it’s shocking Martindale wasn’t interviewed at all while so many of his assistant coaches have been hired away.

For a team that has preached about coaching continuity under coach John Harbaugh, there has been a massive amount of turnover this offseason. He’ll have a tough task of finding even more replacements for his staff while the team prepares for free agency and the 2021 NFL draft.

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