Detroit Lions get two key starters back ahead of Thursday night tilt vs. Packers

The Lions offense gets back two key players for tonight’s divisional matchup against the Packers. Tailback David Montgomery is expected to start and he’ll have tackle Taylor Decker blocking for him.

The Lions listed both those players as “questionable” for the Thursday Night Football matchup featuring the top two teams of the NFC North. And there was some question as to whether they’d be able to play. The NFL Network reported early Thursday that both were out of the game, only to issue a correction to say both were playing.

Tom Pelissero, a reporter with NFL Network, posted the confirmation.

If Montgomery had been sidelined again, rookie Jahmyr Gibbs would’ve started tonight’s game. Now, coach Dan Campbell will have the luxury of playing both. And why not, Detroit, in a surprise pick, selected Gibbs in the first round of April’s NFL Draft. But the Lions fans have no issues with Gibbs, the former standout with the Alabama Crimson Tide, becoming more involved with the offense.

Montgomery sustained a thigh bruise two weeks ago. In Detroit’s final injury report, the Lions listed Montgomery as questionable. He was listed as “limited” in each practice this week.

“I feel like probably the two that are trending the most positive right now would be Decker and D-Mo,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said this week. “Those are the two I’m starting to feel pretty good about.”

Lions leaned on Jahmyr Gibbs against Falcons last Sunday

Gibbs made his first career start last Sunday in the Lions 20-6 win over the Falcons. Coach Dan Campbell described Gibbs’ first-ever start as “solid.” In this case, solid was Gibbs rushing for 80 yards on 17 carries. He also caught a pass, but for a meager two yards.

“There was a couple things I wish he had read a little different or maybe put some of these, we ran a lot of outside zone and hit that cut a little earlier and cut it up,” Campbell told the Lions’ radio. But, there was a number of things in there we thought we were going to get some explosive runs out of that. That’s why you run them. You know, it may take a minute to get them, but we expected to pop more than we got. So, we weren’t real clean all the way through the game, like we really should be.” 

The Lions signed Montgomery in the off-season. A year ago, while playing for the Bears, Montgomery rushed for 122 yards on 15 carries against the Packers. Then after signing Montgomery, the Lions picked Jahmyr Gibbs and folks started wondering what was up, since recent trends suggest teams don’t waste coveted first round draft placement for running backs.

But Gibbs has shown flashes of his play-making skills. On Sunday, he impressed Campbell the most with his fourth-quarter running as the Lions focused on ball control. Coincidentally, the Falcons started Bijan Robinson at running back. The Falcons also went against the trends by selecting the former Texas Longhorn with the eighth pick of the draft.