Most improved position groups during the 2023 NFL offseason

Running backs – Detroit Lions

Additions: David Montgomery, Jahmyr Gibbs & Mohamed Ibrahim

Subtractions: D’Andre Swift, Jamaal Williams & Justin Jackson

Lions running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs

Moving on to the running back position, I certainly had a tougher time finding as drastic of an improvement as I had with the QBs. The Falcons might be at the top of the list simply based on drafting what I believe is a generational running back prospect in Bijan Robinson, but they JUST added him and nobody else.

The team I settled on was the Lions, whose departing trio combined for 2,341 yards and 27 touchdowns from scrimmage across 475 touches. However, while we can argue if they allocated their resources optimally here (paying six million annually over the next three years for David Montgomery and using the 12th overall pick in the draft on Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs, along with an undrafted free agent in Mohamed Ibrahim), I think actually evaluating those players individually, they certainly upgraded that backfield.

It kind of hurts my heart to talk down on D’Andre Swift here, who was a top-20 overall prospect in the 2020 draft for me and I still believe he could take advantage of a tremendous situation, having been traded to the Eagles for a fifth-round pick in 2025. However, he simply hasn’t lived up to the hype up to this point and more importantly, hasn’t been able to stay healthy, missing ten total games across his three years in Detroit. He's been banged and limited in his usage for so many others.

Swift has only carried the ball more than 15 times twice in his pro career and last year he cracked double-digits just three times. His receiving skills in terms of beating linebackers across their face, adjusting to the ball and making people miss in the open field are special, but his vision has been spotty at times. He doesn’t churn out a lot of yardage after contact (only 35.4% of his career rushing total) and he hasn’t delivered enough explosive plays (only seven career carries of 20+ yards).

Jamaal Williams on the other hand is coming off the best season of his career and is one of my favorite characters in the entire league (which is why the Saints are now paying him 12 million dollars over the next three years). With that being said, while he is a great short-yardage back, his TD total (17) in 2022 was pretty inflated by the amount of work he got on the goal line, as 13 of them came from two yards or less away.

Other than his rookie season, he’s gained at least 2.3 yards before and never hit the two-yard mark in terms of yards after contact in all of his other five seasons. He’s a highly useful number two but doesn’t offer much dynamism. And finally, Justin Jackson has largely been a very effective rotational player, but is coming off career lows across several categories.

On the flipside, David Montgomery to me is one of the most underrated running backs in the NFL. After a rather underwhelming rookie campaign in terms of the efficiency of his touches, he’s put together three really strong seasons, despite being part of a Chicago offense that has never finished better than 25th in DVOA since in any of his four seasons there.

Across those 44 combined games, he’s carried the ball 673 times for 2,720 yards (51.6% after contact) and caught 130 of 159 passes for 1055 more yards (90.2% after the reception), combining for 23 touchdowns. Last season was the first time, Monty actually ran behind an above-average offensive line (based on film and PFF’s run-blocking grades), but that’s when he actually saw the lowest workload of his career.

Looking at these past three seasons combined, according to PlayerProfiler.com, he had 119 rush attempts stuffed (no or negative yardage), which accounted for 17.7% of his total. His calling card coming out of Iowa State was the ability to make tacklers miss or break free from wraps, thanks to some of the best contact balance you’ll find from a college back.

That has translated to the NFL, as his 138 missed tackles forced since 2020 rank sixth behind only Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook and Jonathan Taylor. He’s turned himself into one of the best zone-runners in the league, thanks to his pacing and the ability to transfer force from horizontal movement into a vertical one. He’s also only dropped nine of 163 career catchable targets.

While Texas’ Bijan Robinson was in his own tier as a generational draft prospect, according to the majority of analysts, Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs was my clear-cut RB2 and my 17th overall prospect available. After being a very effective all-purpose player for Georgia Tech during his two years there as a former top-100 overall recruit, Gibbs turned himself into the most dangerous runner and receiver for the Crimson Tide this past season (racking up 1370 yards and ten touchdowns across 151 carries plus 44 catches at 7.0 yards per touch).

The line I had in my scouting report on Gibbs was “This kid is like a sports car that can switch gears with no issues at all and make defenders look silly.” His running style was pretty unique, yet while he’s only around the 200-pound mark, his ability to set up gap-scheme runs between the tackles conceptually and manipulate second-level defenders with impeccable footwork really stood out to me.

Plus, then of course, he can make people miss in the open field with it and has the 4.36 speed to go the distance if you give him a seam or get people out in front for him in the screen game. Overall, he forced 57 missed tackles forced across his 195 touches with Alabama.

Detroit didn’t just draft him for a classic running back role however – Gibbs is very comfortable lining up at any of the receiver spots and running an extensive route tree from there, along with being an obvious mismatch out of the backfield. He averaged an impressive 1.83 yards per route run last season despite being involved in the pattern on 243 pass plays.

The increased flexibility and ability to create individually those two guys provide, along with one of the most physical and consistent runners in college football over the last couple of years in Mo Ibrahim – who went undrafted due to concerning knee injuries – should make this offense under OC Ben Johnson even more dangerous.

Honorable mention: Philadelphia Eagles