After two years as a major contributor, Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs was promoted to starter in 2025.
While Detroit did not make the postseason last year, Gibbs was still plenty productive, recording 1,223 yards rushing with 13 touchdowns and catching 77 passes for 616 yards with five TDs.
Now with the departure of David Montgomery, head coach Dan Campbell said the 2026 offense will revolve around Gibbs even more.
“[H]e’s going to be our bell cow now,” Campbell told reporters on Thursday, via transcript from the team. “He really became more of that last year, but we’re going to hang our hat on him quite a bit. We’re going to do a lot of things we feel like he does well.
“Now, I’ve mentioned this before. He can run everything that we’ve got. He can run every scheme that anybody’s ever run. He’s not just an outside runner. He is not just a space runner. He can create his own space in the middle. And some of his biggest runs have been gap scheme right down the pipe where he’s had patience and found it and guys blocked it up well.”
With new coordinator Drew Petzing, Campbell said they’re going to ask a lot of Gibbs, as well as plenty of other offensive contributors. Campbell mentioned Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Isiah Pacheco, and Penei Sewell by name.
“{W]e expect him to have a big year for us,” Campbell said. “We’re going to put a lot on his plate in the run and pass game.”
All this has the backdrop of Gibbs also being eligible for a new contract. Gibbs told reporters this week that he’s letting his agent handle those negotiations while he worries about his own job.
Lions Clips
Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs is heading into the fourth season of his rookie contract, which means he’s eligible to get a new deal, and surely wants to become one of the highest-paid running backs in football. But he says that’s not on his mind.
Gibbs is participating in the Lions’ voluntary offseason workouts, and he said he’ll let his agent and Lions General Manager Brad Holmes figure out his contract.
“I’m just letting my agent and Brad and all them do do all that right now. I’m just worried about the team and ball,” Gibbs said.
Asked again about his contract, Gibbs made clear that it’s not his focus.
“I don’t know. I don’t really pay attention to all that stuff,” Gibbs said. “I let my agent and Brad do all that — or whoever does it up there, I don’t know. But I just let him do that and I just be out here.”
Gibbs, who was born and raised in Georgia and played his college football at Georgia Tech before transferring to Alabama, said he never envisioned Detroit becoming his home. But after three years, it has.
“I love the people here. I love the sports teams here. It’s just been fun overall — I never thought I’d be here in Detroit growing up, but I really like it here,” Gibbs said.
And the Lions really like having Gibbs, which means an agreement on a new contract shouldn’t be hard to work out.
In 2024, Lions safety Kerby Joseph was a first-team All-Pro, and in early 2025 he was rewarded with a four–year, $86 million contract extension. Things have not gone well since then.
Joseph missed most of last season with a knee injury, and Lions head coach Dan Campbell says he has no idea when Joseph will be cleared to play again.
“Really, I don’t know. I honestly do not know,” Campbell said. “I know this: We have done everything we can, and he’s done everything he can do to this point, and we are trying to be as smart as we can and not push this until we absolutely have to. Because once we’ve done that, then we’ll know one way or another. And it’s not worth it right now. We’re just slowly building, continuing to strengthen there, he’s getting treatment, he’s done different things at different places to try to help. I feel good about that. I feel good about everything we’ve done, and so does he. We won’t know. I mean, honestly, we probably won’t know until we get into the thick of training camp.”
Campbell’s tone did not suggest a lot of optimism about Joseph’s ability to play any time soon, and when asked about various treatments Joseph has tried, Campbell cut off the question with, “I’m not gonna get into all that.”
Overall, it was an update that doesn’t sound good for the Lions’ hopes of getting Joseph back to All-Pro form this season.
The Lions lost a receiver to an injury at practice this week and they moved to replace him on the roster on Thursday.
The team announced the signing of Kyre Duplessis to the 90-man roster. The news comes shortly after Lions head coach Dan Campbell announced that fifth-round pick Kendrick Law will miss the season with a torn ACL.
Duplessis is an undrafted free agent who played at Delaware in 2025. He spent four seasons at Coastal Carolina before transferring and recording 60 catches for 824 yards and five touchdowns.
The new Lion will vie for a spot on the depth chart that also features Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, Cedrick Wilson, and Greg Dortch.
Lions rookie wideout Kendrick Law will have to wait until 2027 to make his NFL debut.
Head coach Dan Campbell said at a Thursday press conference that Law tore his ACL during a practice this week. Law will miss the entire season as a result of the injury.
The Lions selected Law in the fifth round of this year’s draft. He had 53 catches for 540 yards and three touchdowns at Kentucky last season. Law spent three seasons at Alabama before transferring within the SEC.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, Cedrick Wilson, and Greg Dortch are the top remaining wideouts in Detroit.
Former Dolphins General Manager Chris Grier has found a new job in Detroit.
Grier has joined the Lions’ front office as a personnel executive, according to Adam Schefter.
The 56-year-old Grier had spent a decade as the Dolphins’ GM before he was fired last season, the day after a Thursday Night Football loss to the Ravens dropped the Dolphins to 2-7. In all, Grier spent 25 years with the Dolphins, rising up their scouting department before becoming GM. Before that he was a scout for the Patriots.
Grier will work for Lions General Manager Brad Holmes, who is heading into his sixth season leading the front office in Detroit.
Veteran tight end Anthony Firkser has found a new team.
The Commanders announced that they have signed Firkser to their 90-man roster on Tuesday. They waived wide receiver Ja’Corey Brooks in a corresponding move.
Firkser had eight catches for 53 yards in seven games with the Lions last season. He also played two games for the Lions in 2023 and split the 2024 season between the Jets and the Chiefs. He had nine catches for 100 yards in 11 games for the Falcons in 2022.
Firkser spent his first four NFL seasons with the Titans and had 106 catches for 1,107 yards and five touchdowns.
Brooks signed with Washington as an undrafted free agent in 2025 and spent the season on the practice squad.
With the Lions moving on from Taylor Decker earlier this offseason, Penei Sewell is now set to move over to left tackle for the 2026 season.
While he’s primarily played right tackle in the league, Sewell is not a stranger to the left side, having played on that side in college. He’s also made some spot starts for Detroit at the position over his first five pro seasons.
Late last week, head coach Dan Campbell said Sewell has handled the full-time transition well so far.
“[H]e’s been working it even being back home before we started [the] offseason [program], once I gave him the words,” Campbell said in his press conference, via transcript from the team. “So, it’ll be like riding a bike for him. Will it be things he’ll have to learn? Yeah, of course there will be. But I mean he has played left. That’s muscle memory.
“He played a lot of left in college and for us for those in ’21, those first few games. And he still took reps at left even over the last five years, so that’ll be seamless. That’ll be seamless. Sewell can do it all.”
Since Detroit made him the No. 7 overall pick in the 2021 draft, Sewell has started all 83 games he’s played. He’s been an AP first-team All-Pro in each of the last three seasons and a Pro Bowler for each of the last four.
Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill didn’t make his first appearance of the 2025 season until October and making a full return from his 2024 torn ACL took longer than that.
McNeill suffered the injury late in the 2024 season and returned to the lineup in Week 7 last year. McNeill had 14 tackles and a sack in 10 starts, which was less impactful than his pre-injury contributions to the defense.
McNeill said last Friday that he never felt 100 percent after coming back to action last year, but is now feeling back to being the player he was prior to hurting his knee.
“It’s just how the body works. It takes time for stuff to come back a little bit,” McNeill said, via the team’s website. “Some stuff was just not there no matter how hard I tried to do certain stuff, it just wasn’t there yet. It’s here now.”
McNeill had 57 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 17 quarterback hits and 8.5 sacks in the 27 games before his injury. A return to that level of play would be just what the Lions need up front on defense as they try to plot their way back to the playoffs in 2026.
Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson was asked at Organized Team Activities if he has aspirations to be the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2026 season, and he confirmed that he wants to be recognized as the best.
“Do I have aspirations for Defensive Player of the Year? Yeah, the mentality is always that, for sure,” Hutchinson said.
In 2024, Hutchinson was the betting favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year before his season ended with a gruesome leg injury. In 2025, Hutchinson says, he was happy to show he could get back on the field, and to sign a long-term contract extension with the Lions.
“I’m really happy with last year, with what I did with a lot going on, whether that be contract, whether that be expectation from people seeing me break my leg, there was a lot of stuff that happened last year,” Hutchinson said. “To have the production I had, I’m really happy with how last year went, and this year, I got to have a full offseason to train and get my body right.”
