The box score won’t show it, but Sione Vaki may have finally revealed the Lions’ plan behind Jahmyr Gibbs
Vaki finished with only 37 yards from scrimmage, but his work in pass protection and short-yardage situations showed why Detroit may already have the complement Jahmyr Gibbs needs. He had six carries for 26 yards and one catch for 11 in the win over New York.
For a few weeks now, I’ve been talking about the Detroit Lions running back 2 situation. I keep coming up with ideas. Maybe Jacob Saylors should play more. Maybe they should look at the open market. Maybe they should draft somebody. Week 3 was the first time I watched Sione Vaki and said, okay, I get this. This is what I think they’ve been needing.
Vaki didn’t have an explosive game. It wasn’t the craziest performance you’ve ever seen. He ran for 26 yards on six carries and had one catch for 11 yards. But this game displayed more than any game so far what the idea might have been for Isiah Pacheco and how Vaki can fit into that role.
Pass protection changes the equation
Start with the pass game side of things, not the run game. Pass protection is key, and you saw in this game Jared Goff got sacked two times early on. Both Demario Davis and Andre Cisco went directly at Jahmyr Gibbs. As good as Gibbs is as a runner, a weapon in the passing game, and the unbelievable athlete that he is, he’s still a smaller guy. He’s not able to stop these blitzers. He might be able to pause them for a second, but they’re still getting through.
With the Davis sack, Gibbs paused him for just a moment, but Davis still got up, got around him, and hit Goff. Vaki is a bigger guy. Vaki is more of a hard-hitting, able-to-absorb-contact player. If you go back to the Cisco sack, Cisco was bearing down and there was nothing Gibbs could do. You put Vaki out there and it’s a different situation.
Later in the game, Vaki did go out and was able to pass block and prevent a sack on one occasion. That’s the kind of thing you’re looking for from him. You want him to be able to come in on some of these passing downs. If the Lions can continue to trust him in that regard, that’s going to be huge because you don’t want Gibbs pass blocking as much as you possibly can avoid it.
Both sacks the Lions gave up were credited to Gibbs by Pro Football Focus. He had a 12.2 pass-block grade in this game. Vaki wasn’t elite. He had a 47.2 grade, and it’s not like that was a whole lot better. He only allowed one pressure. But he held up in that pressure long enough to get a pass off, and that’s notable.
Short yardage and the Pacheco blueprint
Now you go to the run game side of things, and this is where it gets even bigger. I imagine when Detroit signed Pacheco, the plan wasn’t going to mirror what they did with David Montgomery. It was going to be more like Gibbs handles the majority of the carries, and then Pacheco comes in for the short-yardage situations. Third and short, fourth and short, the hard runs, lower the shoulder, barrel guys over. That’s the kind of game Pacheco can play well, along with goal-line work.
In this game, Vaki took on that role. He had two short runs for first downs, one around six yards and another around seven, just enough to get across the line. In the pass game, he had an 11-yard catch that went for a first down. Little things like that matter.
Vaki may never run for 100 yards in a game. I don’t even know how much we’ll see him hit the end zone. But this is what you want out of him: the ability to pass block and contribute in short-yardage and goal-line situations that you probably don’t want Gibbs in on if you can help it. The lowering the shoulder, the hard runs, the physical stuff you need done.
Special teams value and the road ahead
Vaki is also a good special teams player and an asset to what the Lions want to do in that phase. You need him there as well. I came away from this game thinking that was a good performance from Vaki, and I think you’re going to see a lot more out of him as the season goes on.
Maybe we won’t see Saylors in this running back 2 role. Maybe we’ll see Saylors as a kick returner a lot more, because he had a really good game with a 44-yard return and a 37-yard return. We’ll see where it goes. But Vaki changed my mind on Sunday.
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