DETROIT – April 10 was an adventurous day for 9-year-old Kyari Harris.

Harris, who goes by the nickname “King”, started his day at Nichols Elementary School on Detroit’s east side, and it ended at a McDonald’s in Lincoln Park.

It was the quick thinking of a DDOT bus driver and a group of Detroit police officers, who were honored on Thursday (April 30) morning by Mayor Mary Sheffield, that made sure he got back home.

“King got in trouble at school, and he knew he would be in trouble when he got home, so he just decided not to come home,” Mary Wynn, Harris’ mother, said on Thursday. “He went to what he would call his adventure.”

That “adventure” started that afternoon when he got off his normal school bus, cut through an alley, then hopped on a second DDOT bus that took him to the Rosa Parks Transportation Center in downtown Detroit.

“He’s never done this before,” Wynn said. “This is my only child. It was like a heart attack.”

“It was something kind of off on this, you know, I was just saying, like, why this kid is getting on my bus and by himself,” asked Thomas Burgan.

Burgan, who has driven for DDOT for six years, was driving the bus when he saw Harris board.

Surveillance footage from inside the bus shows Harris sitting in the back as the bus rolls along.

It starts to empty out as it heads to its last stop, where he spots Harris in the back, confused and holding a clear backpack.

That’s when word went over the radio to be on the lookout for a missing child.

“I said, ‘Man, that’s the kid,’” Burgan said. “He’s sitting in the back. I’m glad that he stayed on the bus until the end.”

Burgan can be seen asking Harris where he’s going. He quickly exits the bus and starts walking toward the nearby McDonald’s.

The bus cameras, along with Burgan’s cell phone, captured him walking away.

“When I took that last picture, I got back on the bus, and I called it in,” Burgan said. “I said, ‘Hey, this is the kid.’”

Harris eventually stopped at McDonald’s, where he was quickly arrested by police and returned to his mother.

While she was not happy about his little adventure, she was thankful to have him back.

“Thank God he was hungry, because if he wasn’t, there’s no telling how far, how much further he would have gone,” Wynn said. “I’m grateful for [Burgan]. I’m grateful that there were cameras on the bus.

“I never paid attention to the fact that there’s cameras on the bus,” Wynn added. “I thank the bus driver for going over and beyond.”

The Detroit Lions defense needed some serious changes this offseason after the team’s efficiency dropped from the seventh-best scoring defense to 22nd in 2025. Detroit promised to look at everything, and while a complete overhaul of the scheme they’ve been using since 2021 was always unlikely, coaches have promised that they will tweak the system to fit the talent of their players.

Last weekend, the Lions drafted defensive players with five of their seven selections, showcasing that they need there was a talent deficiency on that side of the ball. But can their specific picks tell us anything about the strategic, schematic, or philosophical tweaks they are making to the team?

On one hand, all you have to do is look at the pure numbers of players at each position to suggest there may be some personnel changes in 2026. The Lions played more based defense (three linebacker sets) than anyone in 2025, but if you look at their depth chart right now (including the Lions’ two signings on Wednedsay), Detroit only has eight linebackers (including reported UDFA signing Erick Hunter) compared to 16 defensive backs. Detroit has several members of the secondary who can play in the slot, so is this a sign they plan on playing more nickel in 2026?

Additionally, the players they added to the defensive line seem to bring more pass rush juice than run stuffing. And Detroit has yet to really add a nose tackle to replace the likes DJ Reader or Roy Lopez. Has the team quietly admitted they’ve relied too much on stopping the run and need to tilt the scales a little more toward rushing the passer?

Or we could take things even further. With no true nose tackle, but several movable parts on the interior defensive line, could we see the Lions move to a 3-4 base defense? Given how much we’ve seen Aidan Hutchinson, DJ Wonnum, and rookie Derrick Moore play as a stand-up defensive end, Detroit would certainly have the personnel to make a change like that, especially considering it would only require two true off-ball linebackers. But is that too drastic of a change?

Erik Schlitt and I discuss that and a whole lot more in this week’s episode of the Midweek Mailbag. Other questions this week include:

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How are Detroit Pistons fans feeling, with their team — the No. 1 seed in the conference — down 3-1 and facing elimination against the Orlando Magic on their home court Wednesday night?

It’s a touchy subject.

“We don’t want to talk about that,” said Sandy Maizi of West Bloomfield.

His brother-in-law, Dominic Dallo, summed it up with a phrase his son James, 10, coined when he was in preschool: “Ner-cited.” Nervous… but also excited, he explained.

Certainly, it wasn’t the position fans expected to be in by Game 5. To advance, the Pistons must now win three games straight, including at least one in Orlando. But many were still keeping the faith ahead of tip-off.

“We’ll win tonight,” said Brandon VanBeekom of Traverse City. “Just take it one game at a time.”

He and his wife, Randi, took their kids Liam, 8, and Oliver, 11, out of school early Wednesday to drive down to Detroit for the game. The kids thought they were leaving school early for a dentist appointment.

“I figured it out,” Oliver said. His teacher giving him two days’ worth of homework on his way out the door for his “dentist appointment” was a big clue. His parents, both in the car decked in Pistons gear, was the other.

It was the first playoff game for both boys.

It was also the first playoff game for first cousins James Dallo and Noah Maizi.