Brad Holmes was right to turnover Lions' running back room with Gibbs and Montgomery
The Detroit Lions shocked me this past offseason. It felt like the Lions had a pretty good run game in 2022. They were 11th in rushing yards and third in rushing touchdowns. Then they took that group and completely overhauled it. Jamaal Williams, who led the Lions in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and now […]
The Detroit Lions shocked me this past offseason. It felt like the Lions had a pretty good run game in 2022. They were 11th in rushing yards and third in rushing touchdowns. Then they took that group and completely overhauled it.
Jamaal Williams, who led the Lions in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and now holds the franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a season, left town to play for the New Orleans Saints. D'Andre Swift wound up getting traded to the Philadelphia Eagles on day two of the 2023 NFL Draft.
In their place was former Bears running back David Montgomery and 12th overall pick Jahmyr Gibbs. It's only been one week, but it looks like we can confirm that the Lions did, in fact, upgrade over their previous group.
David Montgomery was steady force force for the Lions in Week 1. He ran for 74 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown put the Lions in the lead late in the game and then Montgomery sealed the win with a first down run late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Lions to go into victory formation.
Jahmyr Gibbs only played 19 snaps in his debut, but he made the most of them. He ran for 42 yards on seven carries and then added 18 yards on two receptions. He was shifty as all get out and made people take notice on some of the things he was able to do. Mainly this run.
Both Williams and Swift had kind of a rough start to their runs elsewhere. Jamaal Williams ran for 45 yards on 18 carries. The Titans defense gave him a hard time in this game. He did have a nice 11 yard run that sealed the win for the Saints at the end of the game though.
Swift is the interesting one. Many pundits couldn't understand the Gibbs pick at the time and they couldn't understand why Swift was traded. The feeling at the time was that the Eagles had fleeced the Lions in a trade.
Swift ran for three yards on one carry in his Eagles debut. Swift only wound up playing 19 snaps on Sunday. The Eagles did win this game, but with the driving rain, I'm surprised they didn't give their running backs more carries in this game. Even their lead back, Kenneth Gainwell, only had 14 carries in this game.
I know some Lions fans might want to dog Swift here for some reason, but I don't think this is really going to be an inclination of how much the Eagles will look to use Swift in the future.
Having said that, it's hard to not think the Lions upgraded over Swift with Gibbs. Gibbs is younger, cheaper, faster and lot more shifty. Plus he's the Lions position-less weapon that they're about to do a lot more with going forward.
There's still a season left to be seen, but if you were feeling uncomfortable with how the Lions switched things up this offseason, you have to be feeling a little better today.
Lions vs Chiefs: What Just Happened?
Detroit Lions football is back!! So is What Just Happened?!! You want to know what just happened? The Lions just went out and beat the Super Bowl champion sin their stadium in front of the world. Lions win 21-20. As always, I have thoughts on this game. These are those thoughts:\ A fake punt from […]
Featured image by Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
