Lions RB coach wants to see Jahmyr Gibbs take the next step as a pass-catcher, do more in the slot

When the Detroit Lions made running back Jahmyr Gibbs the 12th overall pick in 2023 NFL Draft, there were many doubts about place value. The Lions insisted that Gibbs was not just a running back, but rather an offensive weapon, and that his skill set and ability to contribute in all aspects of the game justified selecting him above the running backs who had fallen off the board in recent years. .

Gibbs then had a very good rookie season. He ran for 945 yards and 10 scores, averaging 5.2 yards per carry. He also caught 52 passes for 316 yards and another score. He made the Pro Bowl and finished fourth in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. It all worked out very well. But Detroit’s plan to make him an “offensive weapon” that lined up everywhere didn’t exactly come to fruition. He did almost all of that work off the field.

Here’s what we wrote last off seasonwhen both the Lions and the Falcons employed the “offensive weapon” logic:

Anyway, the idea is that [Bijan] Robinson and Gibbs are so versatile and explosive that you don’t just need to throw them into the backfield and hand them the ball. You can throw the ball to them and line them up anywhere – including in the slot or even wide. The thing is, well, that’s not really a thing that happens…

Since 2017, only three Teams have had a running back lined up in the slot or on the sideline for at least 10 snaps per game: Christian McCaffrey in 2017, Tarik Cohen in 2019 and JD McKissic in 2020. That’s it. Cohen and McKissic were part-time players whose roles were almost exclusively about receiving, while McCaffrey’s 2017 season was his rookie year before he became Carolina’s full-time starter at running back. Even last season, with McCaffrey playing under football aficionado Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco, he totaled just 108 slot or wide snaps in 17 games (6.4 per game), and that number led all running backs across the board. the league…

It’s entirely possible — maybe even likely — that Robinson and/or Gibbs will become very good players. Maybe they’ll even end up as All-Pros or among the best running backs of all time. They can even contribute at a high level, or just be useful pieces in the passing game. They are highly unlikely to be the all-purpose weapons that line up everywhere their teams seemingly imagine, unless their offensive coordinators are about to revolutionize the way they play. NFL the attack is played.

So this exact scenario played out in 2023. Gibbs played 91 snaps in the slot or out of it last season, according to TruMedia. In his 15 games played, that’s an average of almost exactly six per game. That’s less than the number he played at Alabama (7.5 per game) and less than McCaffrey did under Shanahan. (Robinson, for what it’s worth, actually got exactly 10 snaps per game in the slot or out of it.)

Even if you want to say the volume was limited by his split snaps with David Montgomery, the rate at which he was used somewhere other than the backfield isn’t much higher: among the 340 instances of a running back running at least 150 routes in one season since 2017, Gibbs’ slot rate (8.2%) ranked 59th and his share of lined up snaps (7.7%) ranked 81st.

Now, though, running backs coach Scottie Montgomery wants Gibbs to increase his passing usage, including getting into the slot more often.

“What we need him to do from a passing game standpoint is go to the next level,” Montgomery said, via Detroit Free Press. “I think there’s a certain difference between route running from the backfield and being a really sufficient and efficient check-down runner versus what it’s like to be a great route runner, a guy who can run all types of picks ( routes). We know we’ve seen him do those things, but now you can step into the slot and do a little more on the field, can we continue to grow him there? to do.”

Montgomery thinks Gibbs has the ability to do just that and that he can continue to be an X-factor for Detroit’s offense.

“The tape says so,” Montgomery said. “It’s all recorded. I think when you have super talented guys, going from good to great is probably the hardest thing you have to do. And what we’re doing, a lot of people think when you get to that level, ‘Man, I did a good job.’ But now they all think, ‘Man, we weren’t good enough,’ and that’s how we’re going to fight complacency, but that’s also how we’re going to take the next step and that’s what we hope to see.”

Gibbs should once again be one of the Lions’ top weapons, alongside Montgomery, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta. It’s clear he’s a good running back and he’s chasing one of the NFL best offensive lines. He should continue to contribute in the running game, as well as receiving passes on defense. Whether it fulfills the “offensive weapon” vision is another question. Again, the Lions would have to drastically increase their usage in other lineups to make this a reality, and that’s not something we’ve seen teams do very often, if ever.