Through three games this season, the Detroit Lions have a top-five offense in the league.
What do coaches always preach when talking about getting the offense rolling? We need to establish the run, and Detroit is doing that with their two stellar running backs.
Starting with second-year back Jahmyr Gibbs. There were some questions about why the organization took him in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, bu those are quickly being answered.
This season, he's already compiled more than 200 yards on the ground, averaging more than five yards a carry to go along with two touchdowns.
His counterpart, the veteran David Montgomery, is getting a slightly larger load of the carries. He's up to 230 yards and three touchdowns.
Montgomery was critical in the week one overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams, which included the game-winning touchdown.
The two are on a bit of a historic run. In every game, Montgomery and Gibbs have each topped 70 scrimmage yards, making them the first running back duo to do so in each of the first three games since 2006.
While they are similar in productivity, assistant head coach and running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said they are very different stylistically.
"A lot of people don't understand how shifty David is. So as he's coming off of these jump cuts, a lot of people when they come off of jump cuts are very light, but when he comes off of jump cuts he's heavy. So when they're hitting him off of jump cuts they think when he gets hit it's going to knock him off balance, but it's not he's very solid. As when Jah comes off the jump cut, more people wait, so now they're waiting for what's going to happen after the jump cut, and now he's very heavy. So it's just a different way of being able to use a skill," Montgomery said.
