The Lions’ surprising decision to fire special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs this morning reportedly came after he called a fake punt against the wishes of interim head coach Darrell Bevell on Sunday.
The fake punt itself was not a bad call, coming on fourth-and-4 with the Lions down 32-18 in the fourth quarter, when they needed to take some chances to get back in the game. And it came close enough to picking up the first down that it looked like the Lions might have won if they had challenged the spot.
But Bevell didn’t challenge, and he apparently didn’t even know about it until he saw it unfold live. The Detroit News reports that Coombs called it without consulting other members of the coaching staff, and not even all 11 players on the field knew it was coming.
The same report says there’s been an ongoing concern within the Lions organization that Coombs was overly focused on self-promotion, indicating the fake punt was a last straw.
In a couple weeks the Lions’ season will be over, and the entire coaching staff may be gone. So Coombs was probably going to be gone soon anyway, but going rogue on a fake punt made the Lions decide to send him home early.