With his hold-in over and a new contract secure, Jahmyr Gibbs went through his first full practice of training camp Sunday, Aug. 9, and it didn’t matter that the Detroit Lions held most of their other key starters out of team drills.
Gibbs joined quarterback Jared Goff and 4/5ths of the Lions’ projected starting offensive line on the field, while Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill and Jack Campbell were among those who were limited or non-participants in practice.
Gibbs, who signed a three-year extension Friday, Aug. 7, that made him the highest paid running back in the NFL, needed the work after sitting out most of the first eight practices of summer.
He returned for stretching and walk-through Thursday, took part in position drills Friday and got his first team reps of training camp Sunday.
The Lions are preparing Gibbs to handle an uptick in work this fall. Lions coach Dan Campbell said Gibbs would be the “bell cow” of the offense this year after the Lions traded David Montgomery to the Houston Texans, and he didn’t back down from that declaration Sunday, though he acknowledged there’s a fine line to walk when it comes to overworking backs.
“I think that’ll always be there, but I mean, we’re going to push him,” Campbell said. “We’re going to push him because we think this kid can be one of the best, if not the best. So we’re going to push him to get there. We’re going to see what he’s got now. I’m glad we got [Isiah] Pacheco and he’s going to very much be a part of what we have. We need to see where we can take Gibbs now. We’ve only scratched the surface of him.”
Pacheco missed his third straight practice Sunday with an undisclosed injury, and D.J. Reed (groin), Malcolm Rodriguez (ankle), Mekhi Wingo (groin), Payton Turner, (back), Damone Clark, Juice Scruggs and Cedrick Wilson Jr. were among others who were out.
Rookie defensive end Derrick Moore (groin) took part in some individual drills for the first time since leaving practice Aug. 2, and guard Ben Bartch got his first work in team drills this summer in his return from ankle surgery. Several of the aforementioned Lions starters, including Hutchinson, St. Brown, Williams, LaPorta and Jack Campbell, took part in position drills but were held out of the rest of practice.
Here are more observations from Sunday’s practice:
Jahmyr Gibbs is worth the big contract
It’s a light batch of observations today after the Lions practiced for just 90 minutes and in shorts after four straight days of pads, but Gibbs made two plays that showed why the Lions handed him $51.5 million guaranteed.
Devin White appeared to have a bead on Gibbs for a tackle in the backfield in the Lions’ second team period of the day, but Gibbs cut back to his left and raced down the sideline for a big gain. Safety Avonte Maddox hustled to tag Gibbs down near the sideline, and Gibbs laughed through his helmet as the two continued their footrace.
In the situational period to end practice, Gibbs caught a third-and-10 pass near the left sideline in between multiple defenders. If he stays healthy, he’s going to have a huge year.
How Jared Goff did in two-minute drill
In Sunday’s lone situational period, Goff and the offense started at their own 19-yard line with one timeout, down 24-20, with 59 seconds on the clock.
Rookie sixth-round pick Skyler Gill-Howard beat left guard Christian Mahogany with a pressure that forced an incomplete pass, and Goff threw incomplete on second down before Gibbs’ 16-yard catch forced the offense to burn its only timeout.
Greg Dortch beat Roger McCreary for a 21-yard gain on the next snap and the offense picked up one more first down on what appeared to be a defensive holding penalty on McCreary at the 28-yard line with about 25 seconds to play.
On first-and-10 from the 28, Maddox tagged Gibbs down inbounds to keep the clock going. Goff spiked the ball to stop the clock on second down, threw incomplete off the crossbar to Isaac TeSlaa in the back of the end zone on third down and threw a heave of an interception to Nick Whiteside on the final play of practice.
Whiteside took the majority of first-team reps ahead of Ennis Rakestraw Jr. at the cornerback spot opposite Rock Ya-Sin with Reed out and seems pretty secure in his roster spot. Rakestraw worked on the second-team field at outside cornerback at the start of practice. And McCreary continues to lag in the competition for playing time as he hasn’t made many plays this summer.
Fights and injury scares
There was one minor scuffle and one scary injury-related moment in Sunday’s practice. One play after Gibbs ran laughing down the sideline with Maddox, TeSlaa and Chuck Clark got into a shoving match when the two got tangled up on a pass to Brock Wright over the middle of the field. I couldn’t tell if TeSlaa was blocking Clark in the helmet or Clark was yanking on TeSlaa’s facemask first, but the two wrestled each other to the ground as other players stepped in to pull them apart.
Ahmed Hassanein went down three plays later at the end of the same period in a scrum near the goal line. Trainers spent a couple minutes looking at Hassanein’s left foot/ankle, but the second-year defensive line popped to his feet and limped off the field.
Hassanein, as I’ve written several times this summer, has had a nice camp and he had a good rep against rookie right tackle Blake Miller in one-on-ones before he left with injury. Hassanein used quick hands to beat Miller on his rep and slipped inside Miles Frazier working at left tackle on another rep before slipping to the ground.
More from one-on-ones
Miller had another up and down practice, as has mostly been the story of his summer so far.
Undrafted rookie edge rusher Anthony Lucas hit Miller with a strong left hand to the chest and slipped inside on a rush, though Miller bounced back with a strong rep against Tyre West, a tackle who was rushing outside, on his final rep of the period. This is all part of the rookie learning curve for MIller, but the Lions need him to come along quickly given how important a role he’ll play at right tackle.
Lucas torched Colby Sorsdal on a rep late in the period, swatting away the tackle’s hands to get in the backfield, while new center Cade Mays had a strong rep against Tyleik Williams, walling up the second-year tackle, in one of the few matchups featuring starters, and Bartch looked unmovable in his first one-on-one rep of summer against Ben Stille.
A few final notes on the day
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions observations: Jahmyr Gibbs shows why he’s NFL’s highest-paid RB
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
