The Lions are calling him day to day, but there's a chance David Montgomery could miss a game or two. If so, don't expect Jahmyr Gibbs to pick up all of the slack.
While the rookie's workload will continue to grow, Dan Campbell and the Lions are sticking with a "by committee" approach in the backfield. Asked if Gibbs is ready to handle more of a between-the-tackles role, Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket, "We’re going to get him going, get him some more work and look, we’re going to do things that he does best."
"We’re going to ask him to do things that we feel like he can excel at, but we do feel like there’s a lot of things he can do. I don’t think he’s limited to one scheme or one thing, but we’re still, even with him, it’ll be by committee," said Campbell. "We’re going to use all of those backs that go to the game, if we don’t have D-Mo."
The Lions turned to Craig Reynolds when Montgomery went down with a thigh injury in the third quarter of their Week 2 loss to the Seahawks.From that point on, Reynolds took three carries for seven yards and caught one pass for a loss of two yards, while Gibbs got three carries for 10 yards and caught three passes for 14 yards. The Lions are also elevating practice squad running back Zonovan Knight to the 53-man roster, per Knight's agent.
Signed by the Lions in August after being waived by the Jets, Knight rushed 85 times for 300 yards (3.5 average) and added 13 catches for 100 yards last season, his first in the NFL.
Gibbs went from nine touches to 14 from Week 1 to Week 2. Montgomery had been Detroit's lead back, with 21 carries in Week 1 and 16 more in Week 2. For a little while, the Lions will likely have to make do without him.
"He’s a big piece of what we are and what we have offensively," Campbell said. "He really is. With that, I still see it being by committee if D-Mo can’t go, but certainly Gibbs is going to get more opportunities. There again, he got a little bit more and there’s some plays he made and there’s a lot he left out there. And some of that is part of being a rookie. He’ll get better from those with the more exposure he gets. We need him to grow, and he will.”