I’m expecting a lot of 2 RB formations with Gibbs lining up as WR…
Option of bringing either Gibbs or St. Brown in motion.
Options:
Handing off to motion guy
Faking hand off to motion guy and handing to Montgomery
Faking both hand offs to both motion guy and Montgomery and then throwing screen to motion guy
Faking both hand offs and going to another WR
Ignoring motion guy and handing off to Montgomery
Ignoring motion guy and play action fake to Montgomery and all the routes/plays that come off of that
Ben Johnson is in his office right now just thinking shit up.
Great post! BJ is going to be able to get very creative. Now if only Jamo gets his shit together, the possibilities will be endless.
Yep, the versatility of these news guys being able to play different positions and all over the field is going to make it very tough for defenses.
If I was coaching defense vs the Lions, priority number 1 would be stopping the run, cause Goff is terrific using play action. Stop the run and make the Lions predictable. And then #2 would be stopping the 1st down machine St. Brown, especially on 3rd down you know Goff is looking for him.
But, then you also got Jamo, Kalif, Reynolds, Jones, LaPorta, Mitchell and even Gibbs in the passing game to worry about. Tough challenge for any defense. The key to it all for the Lions is the O-line of course
The great thing about our guys (and I’ve been considering starting a thread on this) is how ALL of our guys are players that Offensive coordinators have run the offense through.
We already ran our offense through ARSB.
Alabama ran their offense through Gibbs.
Iowa ran their offense through Laporta.
So we can go any direction we want if a defense tries to get cute and think they have us under control.
I think RB has the opporunity to be a bigger upgrade between the 20 yard lines than we may think. Not as many yards left on the field as JW and Swift did. This comes from reading recent articles like the below that I posted in other threads.
The Lions finished last season tied with Philadelphia for the sixth-best Adjusted Line Yard number in the league. That means Detroit’s offensive line was tied with Philly’s as the sixth-best at creating space for its running backs. The offenses are different, of course, but when it comes to second-level yards, Philly goes up to No. 2 and Detroit dips to No. 15. There are other metrics that show the same thing. D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams left yards on the table last year. Detroit believes, in signing David Montgomery and drafting Gibbs, it has just pulled off a major upgrade and possibly maximized its offense with Jared Goff at QB.
TE could be another suprise in the upgrade area when you look at what Mitchell did when healthy in college and now two years from surgery. Not saying it will be big but I think we will see both Mitchell and LaPorta move all over the field. IF accurate, and I know it’s a big IF, that could minimize the WR Big downgrade you reference.
I think Ben J will creative to offset the potential downgrade you reference at WR, offsetting this. Yes I realize it is the Ben Johnson koolaid but I like diversity of Gibbs and others until JW is back.
And if we can add those bigger runs it will make people commit more personnel to the box to stop us. So that will open up the passing game. And as I have said before when a team is a threat to pop big runs, the defense has to play more honest and can’t do as many fancy stunts or coverages. Running the ball well is the gift that keeps on giving if you do it right. Where some people get it twisted is that the overall numbers may look “similar” at the end of the year. But the impact on the overall game can be vastly different. No matter how many yards and TD Jamaal had, noone was scared of him and committing extra resources to stop him.
Hutch should be better because with better availability from everyone else he won’t have such a huge workload. And he should also take a step forward in his own development.
Houston should also take a step forward in his development. We might not see it in sack numbers, but we should see it in the other parts of his game.
Paschal missed camp, then was thrown in with big responsibility because Harris, Cominsky and Okwara were out, then got hurt again and only played a bit-part role at the end of the season. He should be better for having a full offseason and camp, plus natural development from moving into year 2 like Hutch and Houston.
Romeo also missed camp and was recovering from an Achilles, which takes a long time to make a full recovery from. We only saw him in the last five games and if he has a healthy offseason and camp he should be better than what we saw in those five games.
Harris was at full health for the first four games and that’s it. He was less effective than he had been in 2021. He might not be any better than he was last year, but his availability should at least make things easier for everyone else.
Cominsky had surgery on his thumb, missed some games and then came back playing with a club. He also took on a Hutch like load down the stretch, and with better availability elsewhere lightening his load and no club he should be better than he was last year.
Overall, just having these guys healthier than last year, plus the development in the young guys, should see this unit improve a lot. Austin Bryant got more than 200 snaps last season, the floor is a lot higher if we can rely on four of these six guys (one of them being Hutch) being available every week.
I think we are going to have a huge improvement in the running game, swift was terrible most of the year and had very limites reps. Gibbs will blow his numbers out of the water.
Monty will be great, he was hampered by Chicago terrible line.
I could easily see 2000 yards out of thus tandem, not sure if they will top the td total.
