(Photo: 95.3 The Ticket)
The Detroit Lions were, at one time, the laughingstock of the NFL. Year after year, they struggled to win football games and always finished with losing records. I’m not trying to revisit history, but they are still the only team in NFL history to finish a season with an 0-16 record. Those days are now in the rearview, and most recently, they were a game away from reaching the Super Bowl but fell short to the San Francisco 49ers. I respect that the Lions have built their team through the draft with picks such as Aidan Hutchinson, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, and Brian Branch, to name a few. In 2023, they drafted running back Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th overall pick in the NFL Draft. These last few weeks, the talk has been whether the franchise and their star running back would come to an agreement on a new contract. They have, and he’s signed a three-year extension worth $67.5 million, with $51.5 million guaranteed.
Jahmyr is a top five back in the league today and has become a true threat with the football in his hands. He’s been given the nickname “Sonic,” and it fits him, especially with his style of play and how he’s able to move, escape, and bounce off would-be tacklers. When you watch Jahmyr, the first thing you can’t help but notice is the explosiveness he brings to the field. He has rare acceleration and is a threat to score from anywhere on the field. He uses his speed and burst to his full advantage, and when he’s got half a step on a defender, it’s over. He’s going to turn the wheels on and cruise his way into the second and third levels of the defense and, more often than not, the end zone. Once he’s in the open field, nobody is catching him. It could be the smallest of lanes, but Jahmyr finds a way through and handles the rest. His explosiveness and the way he’s able to hit the gap and just take off make him stand out even more. This is also a versatile back that can hurt defenses as a receiver, and I’ve essentially labeled him as a “wide receiver playing running back,” making him a matchup nightmare on screens, wheel routes, and angle routes. There isn’t a linebacker or safety that can go step for step with him in coverage. He’s so efficient and is consistently among the league leaders in yards per carry and explosive runs rather than relying solely on volume. Jahmyr isn’t the biggest guy either, standing at only 5’9″, but he’s shown he can handle a significant workload.
I often find myself saying the Lions are a much better offense when they’re feeding No. 0 the football. Don’t get me wrong, their passing attack is solid, and Amon-Ra St. Brown is one of the best wide receivers in the league today, but the guy in the backfield with Jared Goff is the focal point of the offense. His presence, along with forcing defenses to zoom in on him, opens up the passing game for Jared and company. Jahmyr is the closest thing I’ve seen to Chris Johnson, and I give him that comparison because of the rare acceleration and his ability to turn it on from anywhere on the field, as I mentioned. I’m glad the Lions were able to get this resolved, and it won’t be an ongoing distraction moving forward.
