Lions Will Not 'Force Feed' Jahmyr Gibbs

Dan Campbell discusses Jahmyr Gibbs' role in the offense.

After his first four games, Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs has been steadily acclimating into his role as the Lions No. 2 running back behind David Montgomery. 

Through four games, Detroit's No. 12 overall pick has recorded 39 carries for 179 rushing yards. In the passing game, Gibbs has recorded an additional 14 receptions for 70 yards. 

In what appears like a charge led by fantasy football pundits, many are wondering why the Lions have not featured the former Crimson Tide running back even more. 

Head coach Dan Campbell was asked if Gibbs needed to make any adjustments to unlock his full receiving potential. 

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"I just go back to this again, is man, every player grows at a different rate in this League. And Gibbs is only going to get better and better and better with time on task," said Campbell. And look, he’s making the right decisions. And there were a couple of things that happened with that turf out there that slowed him down a bit and then you’d like to believe with him in space, he’s going to create something there and didn’t quite get it going. But he will. We’re not panicking here. We’re going to continue to do some things to try to get him the football here." 

With David Montgomery being the clear No. 1, the Lions have the opportunity to not rush a young player, despite the rumblings the team made a mistake selecting him in the first round. 

"Certainly having (David Montgomery) D-Mo allows us the ability to use both of them and use him a certain way, so we’re going to keep looking for targets, but look, we’re not going to try to force feed him," Campbell said. "We’ve got enough people that we can feed the ball and help us move and stay efficient. So, this kid’s going to be just fine. He’s smart, he works at it, and he does have versatility, so we’ll just keep going here.”