Jahmyr Gibbs scored his first semi-real touchdown Tuesday afternoon. Real in the sense that he was lined up against another team.
Finally.
It’s still practice, technically, but you can bet the New York Giants tasked with tracking him out of the backfield and stopping him were keen on doing it. They couldn’t. Partly because a defensive back got fooled by the fake-handoff to Gibbs and partly because Gibbs is quick, fast, elusive and a good route-runner out of the backfield.
Brad Holmes drafted him in the first round for all of those reasons. That last one gives Dan Campbell and Ben Johnson the opportunity to play with all sorts of sets.
Wondering who might be the second target for Jared Goff this fall with Jameson Williams out? (The first, obviously, is Amon-Ra St. Brown).
It could be Gibbs.
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Or it could be Sam LaPorta, the rookie tight end who also found openings in the Giants’ defense for much of the practice session on Tuesday. That’s a skill that’s hard to teach. And he showed that at Iowa and has shown it during each level of practice with the Lions: rookie minicamp, full organized team activities (OTAs), non-padded training camp, padded training camp and now, a lively practice against New York.
Or it could be Kalif Raymond, Marvin Jones or David Montgomery. Goff listed them all when asked if he thought the team had more guys that could make plays in space — or gain yards after the catch — than it did a year ago.
“Yeah,” he said after Tuesday’s practice, “we’ve got some guys that can make some plays after the catch.”
That’ll be critical as Goff and Johnson, the team’s offensive coordinator, try to maintain, and improve, the top-five offense they led last year. Because unless Jameson Williams comes back from his six-game suspension and lights it up, big downfield plays won’t be easy.
If Williams does, consider it gravy; he had an uneven day Tuesday, not surprisingly.
A consistent deep threat would add more room for all the players capable of finding space underneath. Even without it, the Lions are betting that their best guys will find space anyway.
Few are better at it than St. Brown. Raymond got open consistently, too, and showed again why he remains so valuable in the offense.
The difference between last year’s offense and this year’s, though — other than more experience running Johnson’s system — are the youngsters who’ve shown a knack for getting open. When asked what it was like to face a different offense after two weeks of trying to stop his own, linebacker Alex Anzalone said:
“Not having to cover Gibbs out of the backfield was nice. Made my day a little less stressful.”
He wasn’t asked specifically about Gibbs. He just threw that tidbit about him out there.
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Barry Sanders, who made an appearance at the team’s headquarters Tuesday, was asked about Gibbs during an interview on the makeshift set of the NFL Network.
“They couldn’t be more geeked about Jahmyr Gibbs,” he said.
They, of course, are the Lions offensive architects and chief engine. And they feel similarly about LaPorta.
“He’s a great player,” said Goff. “He was a second-round pick for a reason. Understands the game at a high level. Has a good feel for space, I feel like. … Of course, rookie mistakes are going to happen. He’s going to run the wrong thing or do the wrong stuff.”
And yet?
“He’s been eliminating those, and the same ones haven’t been happening twice,” said Goff “which is the goal.”
Now, Gibbs and LaPorta will have to show they can handle the pressure of the real thing come September, when the competition gets stiffer, and the games get even faster. There’s clearly a learning curve. They’ll have to prove they’re up to climbing it.
If they do, both players could duel to become Goff’s next option after St. Brown. Both can run after the catch. Both can make defenders miss. LaPorta, obviously, doesn’t shift directions or change speeds like Gibbs does, but he’s got surprising creativity once he’s got the ball in his hands.
He can run.
Gibbs can really run.
Add in Montgomery’s versatility out of the backfield and Johnson should be able to keep defenses guessing underneath and help the offense he runs move the chains, whether Williams develops this season or not.
The Lions showed why in a joint practice Tuesday against a respectable team. No wonder Anzalone welcomed the break from facing the rookies on his own team.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.