Jahmyr Gibbs — Week 1: Twenty-Nine Runs of Detroit's Thirty-Three
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Gibbs carried twenty-nine times for a hundred fifty-six yards and two one-yard touchdowns, seven runs of ten yards or more, and caught five of five targets for thirty, on a day Detroit ran thirty-three times and nobody else had more than two. The one thing that went wrong was a four-yard catch at the New Orleans forty in the second quarter that was ruled down by contact, challenged, and reversed to a lost fumble, in a 31–30 overtime win over the Saints.
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34 touches, and the one Jahmyr Gibbs would want back was a four-yard catch. First and 10 at the New Orleans 44, seven 46 left in the half, Detroit up seven to nothing: Jared Goff short right to Gibbs to the 40, tackled by Broughton — ruled down, challenged by New Orleans, reversed, fumble, recovered by Broughton at the 40. That play was worth −5.2 expected points added, which is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position, and it cost Detroit almost 12 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game before and after a play. It is most of why his five targets came out at −2.9 on five catches for 30 yards.
The rest was the run game, and the run game was him. 29 carries, a hundred 56 yards, two touchdowns, 14 first downs, 16 of the 29 successful, seven runs of 10 or more, longest 21. The 21 came second and four at the New Orleans 45 with six 11 left in the first, around right end to the 24, and the drive ended with him up the middle from the one for the game's first touchdown. The second score was the same distance — second and one at the one, 11 18 left in the third, behind the left guard, 14 to nothing. In the fourth quarter he ran at the one twice more on the drive that led 21 to 17, and neither counted: an offside flag on the first, a holding flag on the second, and Detroit went from first and goal at the one to first and 11 and kicked a field goal. In overtime he carried five times for 28 and caught one for seven, and the 10-yard run around left end on second and 10 from the 36 was two plays before Jameson Williams's 22-yarder to the five.
The distribution: Gibbs 29 carries, Sione Vaki two, Goff two. 14 before halftime, 15 after. Detroit threw 39 times and ran 33, and Goff's two runs were one scramble and one aborted snap. Five targets put him fourth on the team behind Amon-Ra St. Brown, Williams and Sam LaPorta.
Back in June the preview's whole read on Gibbs was the title — the committee is gone — with David Montgomery's hundred 58 carries out of town and a pick-1.3 price paying for the top of the range, correctly. Sunday was the day that read was written for: 29 of 33. An overtime game with a hundred 65 team rushing yards is not a normal week, and the share will not be 88 percent every Sunday. But it is the first look, and the committee did not show up in it. Detroit is at the Bills on Thursday the seventeenth. Watch whether 29 carries on a Sunday become 20 on a Thursday.
_Data via nflverse._
When Jahmyr Gibbs's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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