The Lions may accomplish a rare feat this season, with two different players running for 1,000 yards.
Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs has 656 rushing yards through eight games this season, which puts him on pace for 1,394 yards in a 17-game season. And teammate David Montgomery has 488 rushing yards through eight games, which puts him on pace for 1,037 yards in a 17-game season.
Only seven teams in NFL history have had two 1,000-yard rushers. The first was the perfect 1972 Dolphins, who saw Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris both hit 1,000 yards. Also accomplishing it were the 1976 Steelers (Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier), 1985 Browns (Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner), 2006 Falcons (Warrick Dunn and Michael Vick), 2008 Giants (Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward), 2009 Panthers (Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams) and 2019 Ravens (Lamar Jackson and Mark Ingram).
At a time when NFL teams are mostly not investing in the running back position, the Lions have mostly gone in the opposite direction: They used the 12th pick in the draft on Gibbs last year despite having signed Montgomery in free agency a month earlier, and this year they extended Montgomery’s contract, a very rare move for an NFL team to make with a veteran running back who still had two years left on his previous contract.
It’s unorthodox, but it’s working in Detroit, where the Lions have a 1-2 punch at running back that no other team can match.