The Detroit Lions trading D'Andre Swift was one of their few surprise moves of the 2023 NFL Draft.

Once the Jahmyr Gibbs selection was announced, this became a much more obvious move, but the idea that Swift could be on the move before the draft was a bit more surprising.

Injuries or not, Swift was a cheap young body that was good enough in the passing game to spend at least one more season on an offense that could use the extra pair of hands.

However, plans mean nothing once you get hit. The Lions had a good duo of running backs before the draft started. Now, they have a better duo. The move worked.

While people can debate all day whether Gibbs was the right selection so early on, it is hard to argue against the fact that the running back room is better today than it was this time a year ago.

If you just want to look at it all in the binary, Gibbs is a better back than Swift and Montgomery is a better back than Jamaal Williams. The run game worked well with that duo last year, just imagine how much better it will be with the new pair in 2023. 

The fact that Brad Holmes was also able to get a fourth-round pick for a guy that didn't want to be in Detroit any longer was just the icing on the cake, especially when considering the fact that the Lions had very little leverage.

It may take some time, but the Lions got better, more consistent, and were able to gain some draft capital for the future. There probably weren't many ways for this past weekend to go better with this situation.