While the Detroit Lions' defense has been ravaged by injury all season, Detroit's offense has remained relatively unscathed until now.
Head coach Dan Campbell confirmed Monday that running back David Montgomery suffered a knee injury in Detroit's loss to Buffalo Sunday that will require surgery and end his season.
"He's just the ultimate teammate," Campbell said of Montgomery, who finished the game Sunday despite the injury. "Ultimate competitor. We're going to miss him. He's another one of these guys at his position helped us to get where we're at. The rest of us owe him."
Montgomery's injury means Detroit will have to navigate the foreseeable future with only one half of the NFL's best running back duo. Montgomery has 775 rushing yards on the season with a 4.2-yard average per carry and 12 touchdowns, which are tied with Green Bay's Josh Jacobs and Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams for the fourth most in the NFL this season. He's also chipped in 36 receptions for another 341 yards.
The Lions will now lean more on Jahmyr Gibbs to carry the load for the league's No. 4 ranked rushing attack heading into last weekend. Gibbs is certainly capable, already having over 1,000 rushing yards on the season (1,047) with 11 touchdowns. His 5.6-yard average per carry ranks fourth in the NFL behind only Lamar Jackson (6.4), Saquon Barkley (5.9) and Derrick Henry (5.8). He's also caught 39 passes for 395 yards and three more touchdowns.
"We have a lot of confidence in Gibbs," Campbell said. "He's continued to get better and better as the season has gone. Given the opportunity, he's made a lot of plays. He made some big plays for us (Sunday). He brings an explosive element. He's getting better in the pass game, and you see what he's able to do in the run game. We have a ton of confidence (in him)."
Campbell said Detroit will also look for Craig Reynolds and rookie Sione Vaki to have expanded roles as Gibbs' backups. Reynolds has a career 4.3-yard average per carry.
Detroit will certainly miss the tough, between-the-tackles running style Montgomery gives them, but the offense isn't expected to change much with Gibbs taking on a bigger role.
Gibbs is the only player in franchise history to record 70-or-more scrimmage yards in each of the first 14 games of a season and logged his eighth game this season with at least 100 scrimmage yards after racking up 114 yards and two touchdowns against the Bills.
This isn't the first time Gibbs has been tasked with carrying more of the load in Montgomery's absence. Montgomery missed three games last season — Week 3 vs. Atlanta, Week 7 in Baltimore and Week 8 vs. Las Vegas. Gibbs carried the ball 26 times for 153 yards (5.8) with a touchdown and caught five passes for another 37 yards in the win over the Raiders. Gibbs totaled 54 carries for 300 yards (5.5) with two rushing touchdowns and caught 15 passes for another 97 yards in those three contests playing without Montgomery.
With Detroit suffering two more significant injuries defensively Sunday losing defensive lineman Alim McNeill (ACL) and cornerback Carlton Davis III (jaw), the offense is going to continue to have to pick up the slack, and that means Gibbs will have to excel as RB No. 1 the rest of the way.
