ALLEN PARK, Mich. — In some respects, Dre Bly reached the pinnacle of his NFL career almost as soon as he started it.
A fan favorite here in Detroit during his prime years as Pro Bowl cornerback, Bly was only a 22-year-old rookie when joined the St. Louis Rams and the “Greatest Show on Turf” just in time to win Super Bowl XXXIV — and then enjoy the spoils of that victory.
“Showing up in Nelly videos, bro,” Bly recalled with a laugh Wednesday, as a 45-year-old father of five who’s now back in the NFL as the Lions’ new cornerbacks coach. “That whole year, it went so fast. But I tell people all the time, I came into the league expecting to win a Super Bowl after that.”
He nearly won another in his third season with the Rams, only to be foiled in the end by a Super Bowl-winning drive led by a 24-year-old quarterback named Tom Brady.
“But after that, I never went back to the playoffs,” Bly said. “Never. I played eight more years in the league and never went back to playoffs.”
Not in the four years he’d spend in Detroit, where Bly signed a big free-agent deal in 2003 and earned it by making the Pro Bowl the next two seasons. And not at the end of it in Denver and San Francisco, either.
So among the lessons he took away from his 11-year NFL career — and chief among those he’ll try to impart now that his football life is coming full-circle here in Detroit — is this: Appreciate the moment.
“Things come and go so fast, and if you don't make the most of it, it can leave you just like that,” said Bly, who racked up as many interceptions (19) as he did wins during his first stint with the Lions from 2003-06.
“Even though I had some individual success when I came here, ultimately I didn't have the team success,” added Bly, who was allowed to seek a trade elsewhere a year into Rod Marinelli’s ill-fated coaching tenure in Detroit. “That's why I'm so excited to be back because I felt like I left some things out there on the field. And to see the way these guys are trending now, and with the leadership that we have, it’s really a blessing.
“I wasn't able to provide something here as a player, but I'm excited to be back to hopefully provide something as a coach. We’re gonna make the most of this opportunity.”
A second home
It’s a big one, no question, landing his first full-time NFL coaching gig with a team seemingly on the rise in a city that has always felt like a second home. Detroit is where Bly made his name as a player in this league, but it's also where he and his wife, Kristyn, started a family.
He spent the last four years as an assistant on Mack Bown’s staff at North Carolina, where Bly was a two-time All-American in the late-1990s. But prior to that, he’d spent time as a minority coaching intern with the New Orleans Saints, working alongside both Dan Campbell — the two actually were teammates in Detroit in 2006 — and Aaron Glenn, one of the veterans he’d patterned his own game after when he was a budding NFL star.
Bly and Glenn stayed in touch after that 2017 season, and when the Lions went looking for an assistant to replace Aubrey Pleasant, who’d been fired last October, there was a natural fit.
“I wanted to bring in somebody that can really show, and let these corners know, ‘This is how a corner operates,’” Glenn said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “And I’ll tell you what: He has it. He has it and he’s fun. He’s energetic. He has this aura, this swagger about him that I know for a fact is gonna seep into all of our guys.”
Bly, for his part, admits he grew “a little jealous” last fall watching the Lions having fun again, first on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” and later as they caught fire in the second half and made a late playoff push in the NFC.
“When I heard people talking about the Lions here in this community, and just all across the football world, there was a lot of excitement,” he said.
And you can hear it in his voice now, too, as the coaches prepare for the players to return to the practice facility for offseason workouts beginning next week.
New-look group
The Lions’ secondary was arguably the team’s weakest link last fall, as the team ranked 30th in passing yards allowed. Not coincidentally, it’s the position group that has seen the biggest overhaul this offseason. Gone are former starters Amani Oruwariye, Jeff Okudah and Mike Hughes. And in their place are a trio of free-agent additions — Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson — that possess some of the same traits Bly did as a player:
"One of the things that Dan and A.G. talked about was having high ball-production guys, guys that make plays,” said Bly, who’ll also work with some key holdovers in Jerry Jacobs, Will Harris and Chase Lucas. “It's either in you or it's not in you. And I think we've been able to bring in three guys that have been highly productive, Three veteran players that have been successful in this league. Cerebral players that are smart, good leaders in the meeting room and off the field.”
Players who remind him of someone he knows well, too. Bly smiled Wednesday when he was asked about Sutton, who signed a three-year, $33 million with the Lions last month after spending his first six NFL seasons in Pittsburgh.
“He's like another coach on the field,” Bly said. “He's one of those guys who is going to be in your office all the time talking ball, asking questions. He's going to be one of the first guys in the building, one of the last ones to leave. And so as a coach, as a former player, that's what you love to hear.
“At the end of the day, this is why Dan coaches, this is why A.G. coaches, and the rest of the guys on staff who are former players. We want these guys to learn from us, but also have a chance to do what we weren’t able to do. That's the whole point of us coaching, is to pass the torch, helping these guys have the chance to be better than us.”
It's a chance Dre Bly is ready to make the most of now that he's been given a second chance in Detroit.
