Jahmyr Gibbs: Lions' Offensive Line Is 'Best in League'
Jahmyr Gibbs is beginning to look like the explosive, multi-purpose back that the Lions intended him to be when they selected him No. 12 overall this past April.
Over the last three games, the Alabama product has truly come into his own. He's amassed north of 100 all-purpose yards in each of the aforementioned contests, including a career-best 189 yards in Week 8 against the Las Vegas Raiders (152 yards on the ground and another 37 as a receiver).
Gibbs’ coming out party versus the Raiders came without his backfield tag-team partner, David Montgomery. Montgomery sat out Weeks 7 and 8 with a rib injury, before making his return this past Sunday against the L.A. Chargers.
All the while, Montgomery has served as a valuable mentor to the rookie running back.
“He’s been a big brother really,” Gibbs said of Montgomery Wednesday. “As soon as I came in, he guided me every step of the way. With anything I needed help with, he was there.”
In the veteran back’s return to play in Los Angeles, he and Gibbs combined for their best game yet as a duo.
The tandem combined for 193 rushing yards, with Montgomery leading the way with 116 yards on 12 carries.
In the Week 10 matchup with the Chargers, Gibbs recorded his first career multi-touchdown game, with both of the touchdowns coming from a yard out. With the two 1-yard scores, he absorbed a couple of touchdowns from Montgomery, who had previously been Detroit’s goal-line back.
Gibbs’ first red-zone score on Sunday came after he pulled off an impressive 35-yard run. On the run, he took a toss from Jared Goff that he originally carried to the right side of the field. However, he quickly decided to switch fields, and bounced the carry to the left, while blowing past multiple defenders on the way to the 1-yard line. And, on the subsequent play, he found the end zone for his first score of the day.
As Gibbs told Amon-Ra and Equanimeous St. Brown on the “St. Brown Brothers” podcast, “David (Montgomery) came out, and then he came and got me. He was like, ‘Jah, you want it?’ I was thinking, ‘Yeah, yeah, let me get it.’ He was like, ‘Bet.’ And, he just ran out. And then, he let me get it. Props to big bro.”
Gibbs finished with 77 yards on the ground, plus another 35 as a pass-catcher, in Detroit’s most recent outing. All season long, the first-year pro has enjoyed running behind the team’s offensive line.
“Our offensive line is the best in the league,” Gibbs told reporters Wednesday. “The numbers prove it. Big shout out to them. We couldn’t do what we do, Jared (Goff) couldn’t do what he does without them.”
