Detroit Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs learns from summer hamstring injury

Detroit Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs learns from summer hamstring injury

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Jahmyr Gibbs missed training camp with a pulled hamstring, the third time in less than 12 months the Detroit Lions running back has suffered the injury.

Now that he’s back, Gibbs’ position coach hopes his young playmaker has learned something about his health.

“It’s the old ‘hot stove’ theory,” running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said Friday. “You can tell a kid as many times as you want, ‘Yeah, don’t touch that. Don’t touch that stove. Don’t touch that.’ And they still want to go up there and touch it. And what he’s done is he’s touched the stove, so now that he’s touched the stove, it’s really triggered him to understand that even though he feels good, even though everything is going great, everything feels perfect with his body, look, I still need prehab. I still need to put more in.”

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Gibbs pulled his hamstring during practice in early August and missed the final two weeks of training camp. He missed two games with a similar injury he suffered in practice last season and sat out part of the OTAs with another soft-tissue injury.

Gibbs said Tuesday he was feeling “good” and ready to play in Sunday’s season opener against the Los Angeles Rams.

He is not listed on the Lions’ weekly injury report.

“Lifting, running, that’s not enough anymore,” Montgomery said. “This is professional athletics, where you have to be one step ahead of everybody else. And the other thing you see in him is his nutrition has gotten better. Everything has gotten better. He listens. He does what we ask him to do, not only in terms of managing his body, but managing his time. He gets more rest, he does all those things. He’s becoming a professional. He just happens to be a professional at 20, 21.”

‘Lots of love’ for Corum

Former Michigan football running back Blake Corum makes his NFL debut Sunday at Ford Field as the Los Angeles Rams’ No. 2 running back behind Kyren Williams.

Corum fell to the third round of the draft in April, but Montgomery and Lions coach Dan Campbell both said they are big fans of the Wolverines’ seventh-leading rusher of all-time.

“We really liked Corum,” Campbell said. “We brought him down here, we had the local day and everything, got to sit with him and obviously he was in our backyard, so we definitely got to see him a lot. A lot of respect for the way he plays the game, his background. He’s just one of those football-playing guys. He runs hard, he’s smart, he’s explosive, he’s tough, he’s quick and he fits in well with them. He’ll fit right in there. Those two backs they’ve got, I think, are going to be a handful.”

Williams led the NFL last season with 95.3 rushing yards per game, while Corum was a two-time 1,200-yard rusher at Michigan.

“Great player,” Montgomery said. “Great contact balance. Plays at a really, really high speed. Vision, unbelievable. Can catch the ball out of the backfield. I liked a lot of things about him. I liked a lot of things about him. I’ve known him a long time, watched him a long time. He’s gotten better and better. I know his work ethic, I know how he was raised. Man, I liked a lot of things about him. There wasn’t much I didn’t like about him.”

Dave Birkett is the author of the new book “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.” Pre-order now from Reedy Press.

Contact him via [email protected]Follow him on X and Instagram via @davebirkett.