Detroit Lions rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs looked good when he was on the field against the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night-seven carries for 42 yards (six forced missed tackles and 34 yards after contact, according to Pro Football Focus) and two catches for 18 yards, with the second-best PFF grade among Lions' offensive players.
The issue for many Lions' fans, and Gibbs' fantasy owners, was that he played just 19 snaps to David Montgomery's 55 against the Chiefs. The turf monster also got him on what had the look of a possible touchdown run if he could have gotten to the outside. Better days will come, in terms of snaps and sheer number of touches.
As if to answer the ire around the perception Gibbs didn't get enough work in the season opener, after he had said the team would be smart with the rookie's workload, head coach Dan Campbell promised those better days are indeed coming in his meeting with the media on Friday.
Dan Campbell says Jahmyr Gibbs, as expected, will have a bigger role going forward
Montgomery, for better or worse for a segment of Lions' fans who will never like him because of the man he replaced (Jamaal Williams), is not going away in the Detroit backfield. But Campbell promised Gibbs will see a better share of the workload from here.
Via Nolan Bianchi of The Detroit News.
"Gibbs, he's pretty electric, and he's only going to get better, and he's going to get a bigger piece of the pie as we move forward," Campbell said. "... He'll begin to get more touches now, so that was just the beginning last night.""
As Bianchi added, who knew "NFL team easing in rookie" would be such a thing.
I had no idea "NFL team easing in rookie" was going to be so controversial
— Nolan Bianchi (@nolanbianchi) September 8, 2023
Campbell mentioned how Gibbs' limited workload was planned, which he hinted during the week, as part of a general plan for all the Lions' rookies in their first game.
"That was what we talked about with him. First game, out of the gate, there again, man — we really didn't wanna overload any of those (rookies)," Campbell said. I think it's important you go in and let them get a feel of what it's going to look like. That's the first one, (so) let's go in and make sure that the guys that have been around here, the guys that have taken a load for us, that we've been in games with, that they take on a bigger load, and we work these rookies in and get them a feel of it — and now they got that one under their belt.""
Despite seeing just nine touches and playing less than 20 snaps against the Chiefs, Gibbs is on pace for over 1,000 total yards this season. If he maintains his touch-to-snap rate (47.4 percent) from Week 1 moving forward, or even something close to it, he'll be just fine.