ALLEN PARK — In his third NFL season, Jahmyr Gibbs continues to develop. It was never more evident than in Sunday’s win at Washington.
Gibbs’ efforts earned him the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award, announced on Wednesday. In that 44-22 romp, he had 142 rushing yards, 30 receiving yards and three touchdowns (one passing). He joins Barry Sanders as the only Lions running backs to win the award on multiple occasions.
Gibbs and the Lions were coming off a less-than stellar performance the previous week in a loss to the Vikings.
“One thing inside of that hoodie is he has a tremendous amount of pride in his performance. I had no doubt the kind of game he was going to come back and have, his demeanor in practice was a very, very serious demeanor. He usually doesn’t say much but there was a certain level of intensity from not doing what he expected to do in that game,’’ said Scottie Montgomery, assistant head coach/wide receivers coach.
Quarterback Jared Goff said Gibbs is good at “kind of everything.”
“Obviously his speed jumps out right away and we can get him on the perimeter in some things. It’s pretty impressive what he can do,’’ Goff said. “Then out of the backfield, his hands and his route-running ability is getting so much better, it’s hard to imagine where the ceiling is for this guy.’’
Montgomery pinches himself every now and then when he sees Gibbs run a play,
“His ability to cut is continuing to get better. He’s starting to understand these vertical cuts — when to put his foot in the ground,’’ Montgomery said. “This guy is super-talented and he’s gifted but the long run (43 yards) he had if you watch it, he’s waiting on blocks to set up, he knows exactly what he’s doing, he can feel the outside presence of the corner and knowing when to hit it, so he’s just doing a really really good job.’’
While it’s Gibbs’ third NFL season, he is only 23 years old. He was successful as a rookie and has just kept growing.
“The game has probably always been pretty slow for a guy that runs that fast. Now with the cerebral part of it he’s starting to play at a different level,’’ Montgomery said. “I just love where he is, especially in some of those tight area runs that people are not talking about. One of his better two or three runs in this game were 3-yard gains, 4-yard gains, where early in his career those would have been TFLs (tackles for loss) because he would’ve tried to spin out. This week he put his shoulder down, stayed tight to the double team, got 3-4 yards off of it.’’
Gibbs continues to make his mark on the record book. He joined Barry Sanders as the only players in franchise history to produce at least 10 touchdowns in each of a player’s first three-career seasons.
He recorded his 11th-career multi-touchdown game (his third this year), tied with Billy Sims for the second-most multi-touchdown games by a running back in franchise history. He also joined Sanders and Sims as the only players in franchise history to top 4,000 scrimmage yards through three-career seasons.
UP NEXT: LIons (6-3) at Eagles (7-2), 8:20 p.m. on Sunday.
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