The Lions need an interim head coach to replace their interim head coach this weekend.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Lions interim head coach Darrell Bevell will not coach the team against the Buccaneers on Saturday because he has been deemed a high-risk close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The Lions had one coach and one player test positive this week.
Wide receivers coach Robert Prince will take on the head coaching duties. Quarterbacks coach Sean Ryan is set to call the offensive plays. On Wednesday, quarterback Matthew Stafford said he thought he could handle calling plays in a pinch, but that the offense will run more smoothly with someone filling the coordinator role usually filled by Bevell.
“The way we run this offense with mixed personnels and different people in different spots for certain reasons, yeah, I mean, I think we do,” Stafford said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “If we needed to go out there and throw the ball all over the yard and we didn’t have anybody physically able to call plays, sure, we could get away with it and go for it. But I think we’d be at our best calling plays in this offense and mixing and matching personnels and getting matchups we like.”
Prince is the first interim interim head coach since Aaron Kromer with the Saints in 2012. Sean Payton was suspended for the year after Bountygate and Joe Vitt was named interim head coach, but was suspended for the first six games so Kromer took the reins until he was allowed to return.
Darrell Bevell will not coach Lions Saturday originally appeared on Pro Football Talk
