Detroit Lions select Jahmyr Gibbs in 1st round of 2023 NFL Draft

The Detroit Lions are banking on former Alabama superstar Jahmyr Gibbs to come in and be a stud at the running back position. The Lions decided to take him off the board in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday night, picking him No. 12 overall, according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer.

He spent the first two years of his career with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, before hitting the transfer portal and joining the Alabama Crimson Tide for his junior season. During his lone season with the Crimson Tide, Gibbs demonstrated just how electrifying he can be with the football in his hands.

He and Bryce Young helped carry the Alabama offense for much of the 2022-2023 college football campaign. Gibbs helped propel the Crimson Tide to an 11-2 overall record this season, including a 45-20 throttling of the Kansas State Wildcats in the 2022 Sugar Bowl. A dynamic player every time he touched the football this season, Gibbs earned second-team All-American honors from USA Today at the all-purpose position. While at Georgia Tech, he also was named a first-team All-ACC selection in 2021, after racking up 1,805 total yards his sophomore season, the second most in Yellow Jacket single-season history.

He displayed his super soft set of hands this year for the Crimson Tide — hauling in 44 catches — finishing second in school history for catches by a running back in a single season. He racked up 1,628 all-purpose yards this year for Alabama — ranking him third in the SEC and 21st in the nation. Blessed with an excellent combination of speed and acceleration, Gibbs had 151 carries this season for 926 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, averaging 6.1 yards per carry.

During his three-year college career, he racked up 2,132 total rushing yards and 1,212 total receiving yards. A dynamic all-purpose weapon, he racked up 3,344 total yards and 23 total touchdowns during his time at Georgia Tech and Alabama.

A former four-star recruit in the class of 2020, Gibbs was rated as the No. 9 running back in the country, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He played his high school football at Dalton High School (Dalton, Georgia).

What NFL Draft analysts are saying about Jahmyr Gibbs

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein broke down what Gibbs can bring to the table for an offense in the National Football League in his recent scouting profile of the running back. The analyst compared Gibbs’ skill set to Alvin Kamara of the New Orleans Saints.

The NFL.com scout pointed out that Gibbs might not be a good fit to be a workhorse tailback for an NFL team. Still, he brings plenty of positives to the table. Including his dynamic versatility and pass-catching skills, which will allow play-callers opportunities to create mismatches in open space.

“While Gibbs might not be the engine of an NFL running game, he’s more than capable of adding juice to the offense. He’s a slasher who can stretch defenses wide, and he has the wiggle to elude tacklers in space. However, he could see his effectiveness diminished inside. Gibbs might be better off with a more measured carry count as an RB2, but his versatility and pass-catching prowess will give creative play-callers an opportunity to exploit certain personnel groupings and find mismatches in space,” Zierlein said.