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The Detroit Lions moved on from running back David Montgomery after trading him to the Houston Texans this offseason. The club replaced him with former Kansas City Chiefs star Isiah Pacheco to play the second option behind Jahmyr Gibbs. This will be Gibbs’ first time in his NFL career not playing alongside Montgomery, and it appears he’s preparing for the 2026-27 campaign by partaking in MMA.
With the 24-year-old running back expected to be the bell cow in Detroit next season, Gibbs claimed that MMA training is helping him in multiple ways, according to Eric Woodyard of ESPN. He explained how MMA improves his body control, hand speed, and conditioning.
“It helps with body control. Your base and all that, and faster hands. I would say with blocking, I get my hands up before they hit me,” said Gibbs about his MMA training. “I feel like my body’s gotten in better shape, like physically it looks better. And conditioning-wise, that conditioning is way different from here because you use nonstop movement in every muscle of your body.
“Out here [in football], you get more breaks and [there is] much more using your legs,” continued Gibbs. “But there [in MMA], it’s just constant shoulders, knees, elbows, you go to the ground and all that, so out here I barely get tired.”
With Montgomery out of the picture, Gibbs is potentially in for the biggest year of his career. Even head coach Dan Campbell admitted the Lions plan to use the three-year veteran as the go-to No. 1 option in the backfield despite signing Pacheco, per Woodyard.
“He’s going to be our bell cow now,” said Campbell about Gibbs. “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.”
Jahmyr Gibbs has been a proven superstar nearly as soon as he entered the league in 2023. Last season was no different, as he played all 17 games, recording 1,233 rushing yards, 616 receiving yards, and 18 total touchdowns (13 rushing, 5 receiving).
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