With the sixth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the Lions selected Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta. That was their reward for trading down to No. 12; they reaped it in a bruising of the Broncos on Saturday night.
In the Lions' biggest game of the season, under the scrutiny of an anxious fanbase and the bright lights of national TV, their rookie running back and rookie tight end were two of the best players on the field. Gibbs averaged nearly a first down per carry. LaPorta caught three touchdowns and continued his assault on the NFL record books. The Broncos never had an answer for either.
"I was thinking about it halfway through, how those two guys (have made) such an impact as rookies, said Jared Goff, who tied a career high with five touchdowns. "They're two of the best rookies I've ever been around, in what they handle mentally and what they do every Sunday for us, the way they practice, the way they're pros, everything. They're as good as it gets and you see the results out here on the game day. But the work they put in, and how professional they both are, it's really impressive."
LaPorta has been doing this all year. It's the fact that he keeps doing it that stands out. He was three players rolled into one on the game's opening touchdown, going up like a receiver to make a catch in the flat, dancing like a running back to make a defender miss and then powering his way into the end zone like the tight end that he is.
The second tight end taken in the draft, LaPorta now leads all NFL tight ends this season with nine touchdowns. He's third in yards and fourth in catches. The Lions head to Minnesota next week with a 10-4 record and a chance to clinch the NFC North, for the first time ever. They wouldn't be close to that scenario without LaPorta, "and he deserves it," said Goff. "He's playing really well."
Gibbs is playing better and better. Remember when the Lions were easing him into action in September? This was part of the reason why, to have fresh, freaky-fast legs as the playoffs near. Now Gibbs and David Montgomery look like the best running back duo in the NFL. While acknowledging that "I'm not the coordinator," veteran left tackle Taylor Decker said after Saturday's 42-17 win that it wouldn't have been smart, "especially when we have so many skill position players, to overload him early on."
"His acceleration through the hole when he sees the cut or sees the read is pretty special," said Decker. "And that's what he's really good at, just hitting the hole with speed and getting to the second and third level."
The Broncos entered the game with the worst run defense in the NFL. The Lions opted to throw it in the early going, until they finally handed it to Gibbs at the start of their third drive and he peeled off an eight-yard gain. He was a menace the rest of the way. He finished with 100 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, catching another touchdown on a crisp route out of the backfield. There was the "multi-phase, elite, explosive, position-less weapon" Brad Holmes was talking about.
Ask Gibbs about his success and his reaction is always the same: he smiles and nods across the locker room at the offensive linemen: "It's not really hard with them," he said. "All you gotta do is know which way you gotta get the ball and they'll do the rest." The offensive linemen, in turn, say the opposite: "We just try to give him at least the first four to five yards without being touched," said right tackle Penei Sewell. "If he gets more than that, that's really all him."
With Detroit's O-line back at full strength, Gibbs had six runs longer than five yards, four longer than 10 yards and two longer than 20. He came around the edge with so much speed on his touchdown that he ran through a linebacker at the goal line. He made so many defenders miss on a long run earlier in the game that he was kicking himself for finally getting taken down five yards shy of the end zone.
Gibbs said it was around his fifth game this season that he started to slow things down mentally, which is exactly when he began to speed it up physically: "Coming in to a new league, don't know what's in store, it's always going to take a couple games for the brain to process everything."
"I think he's really more comfortable with it," said Sewell. "He knows what we're doing up front and he's seeing it."
What the Lions are seeing is one of the most dynamic players in the NFL. With his work Saturday night, Gibbs now leads the league with 5.7 yards per carry. He demurred, per usual, when asked about it and deflected credit to the O-line and thanked Dan Campbell and coordinator Ben Johnson "for trusting me and giving me the rock." Pressed on what kind of pride he takes in putting up such numbers as a rookie, Gibbs said, "I've always wanted to, throughout my whole career, average five yards, at least five yards a carry."
"So yeah," he said, "I'm pretty proud of myself right now."
LaPorta, meanwhile, is on track to be the third rookie tight end this century to make the Pro Bowl. And he belongs in the discussion for All-Pro. He's 10 shy of the record for catches by a rookie tight end, set by Keith Jackson of the Eagles in 1988. On Saturday, he became the first rookie tight end in NFL history with at least 70 catches, 700 yards and eight touchdowns.
Goff has frequently compared LaPorta's dependability and demeanor to that of Amon-Ra St. Brown. Campbell echoed that sentiment after LaPorta's latest statement, especially in his work habits: "Very much the same way, just how he goes about it."
"And is highly competitive," said Campbell. "He gets in games like this and he shows up now. He's got this competitive edge about him."
Together, Gibbs and LaPorta helped ease some of the angst around a first-place team with one of the best offenses in the NFL. The Lions took a lot of flak this week for last week's loss to the Bears, the offense in particular. Gibbs would be lying if he said he didn't hear it. Against the Broncos, who had won six of seven thanks to a defense feasting on takeaways, Gibbs said the Lions "wanted to score a lot of points and make a statement."
The statement?
"That we're the same team," he said. "We've struggled the past couple games, but we're the same team that started this season."
Holmes made a statement of his own in April, defying draftniks by taking a running back 12th overall, and a tight end 34th overall for his troubles. You can debate the positional value of those picks, even if both players are clearly valuable to the Lions. You can't debate the production, or the impression they've already left on this season.
"I'm just going to bring it back to Brad," said Campbell. "It's a hell of a job by him, once again. Took a lot of criticism for those two picks ..."
(Insert dramatic pause...)
"But they look like they're OK," Campbell said with a grin. "So I'm glad we got them."
