Allen Park — New Detroit Lions tight ends coach Steve Heiden has one of the youngest position groups in the league.
But if anyone thinks he’s shaping his coaching philosophy around that — well, think again. When it comes to his overarching ethos as a coach, there isn’t much wiggle room.
“To its core, football hasn’t changed since me (Lions head coach and former NFL tight end) and Dan (Campbell) were playing the position,” Heiden said. “I think it’s still about physicality first, and you go into the game with that mindset and that approach.
“Most of the time, the rest will take care of itself.”
Heiden, who played 11 years in the league with San Diego and Cleveland before retiring in 2009, comes to Detroit after a decade with the Arizona Cardinals. He got his start as an assistant special-teams and assistant tight ends coach in 2013, then spent a year as an offensive line assistant before working four years as tight ends coach (2019-22).
“I still think you can win a bunch of games in this league just being more physical than your opponent,” Heiden said. “Now, obviously as you go, you tie all the things on top of that — your technique, your fundamentals, your discipline, your approach to the game and all that, but I think it starts with physicality, and I don’t think that’ll change.”
Though he’s still digging into the Lions’ tight ends situation as a whole, he took notice last season that the group actually became more productive after trading away T.J. Hockenson, a former top-10 pick and one of Detroit’s top pass-catchers.
Still, he’s not oblivious that young players may require a different type of teaching and that having a young group comes with its own set of benefits and disadvantages.
“The pros are there’s always growth to be had. You can kinda mold what you want out of these players,” Heiden said. “And like I was saying with the position, there’s so many specific things we need to do in both the run and the pass game that we can really grind away on these techniques and fundamentals that we want to work on, and I can mold them a little bit into what I want out of a player.
“That’s the neat part about it.”
On Mitchell
Many mock drafts and projections have the Lions destined to take a tight end. Heiden was reluctant to specifically address what the Lions might be looking for from the upcoming draft’s class of tight ends.
“Overall, yeah, it’s a good class,” he said. “We’ve obviously done a bunch of work on it, but I think I’m not going to get into the details on the players or any stuff like that.”
He did, however, have great things to say about second-year tight end James Mitchell, a fifth-round pick by Detroit in 2022 who was still rehabbing a torn ACL during the most crucial parts of his rookie offseason.
“I liked him coming out, so I know that. Here’s the thing: Here’s a kid that was coming off an ACL last year, right? That’s hard to do,” Heiden said. “I’ve had to do that myself as a player, and you’re really not yourself that whole next year. So, there’s a lot of credit to him just being out there playing.”
Mitchell wound up appearing in 14 games for Detroit, catching 11 passes for 113 yards and a touchdown.
“The things you see on tape: You see the athletic tools, some of the things he can do movement-wise, and we’re going to grow and build off of that as we go into this year,” Heiden said. “So, I’m excited to get him his second year off the ACL. I think that’s an important year to grow and develop.
“I think there’s a lot of room to grow for him.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi