David Montgomery injury update: Lions RB will miss ‘a little’ time

On Monday afternoon, Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell gave an update on the rib injury to running back David Montgomery. Campbell noted that the team is expecting to be without Montgomery for some time.

“He’s got a little something in there, the cartilage. He’s probably going to be down for a little bit here,” Campbell said. “I don’t know how long. That’ll just be really how long it takes for this to—at his position, that’s not an easy thing to deal with. So we’ll just take it as it comes, but I think there’s a chance we won’t have him for a little bit.”

Campbell said he doesn’t know at this time if Montgomery will end up on injured reserve.

“I have no idea,” Campbell continued. “I really don’t at this point. We’ll see what he feels like tomorrow. See what he feels like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We’ll kinda see where we’re at.”

The good news is the Lions appear to have some reinforcements coming. Campbell was optimistic about first-round rookie back Jahmyr Gibbs returning this week after missing the past two games with a hamstring injury.

“Yeah, I feel a lot better about Gibbs this week. He ran really well on Saturday before we left and had another really good workout today,” Campbell said.

Gibbs has filled in for Montgomery once this season, rushing for 80 yards on 17 carries against the Atlanta Falcons.

Campbell also dropped some interesting information on how the team will try to compensate without Montgomery, whose 94 rushing attempts is 55 more than any other player on their roster. Outside of Gibbs, the Lions have Craig Reynolds and Devine Ozigbo (on the practice squad). When asked if that was enough, here was Campbell’s answer.

“Yeah, and I think if not, we’ve got other guys we can use on the roster at that position, probably in the receiver room,” Campbell said.

Could that mean more Amon-Ra St. Brown in the backfield? Kalif Raymond? Jameson Williams??

The Lions have been one of the best rushing teams in the NFL through six weeks, averaging 124.2 yards per game (ninth) and ranking seventh in rush offense DVOA. We’ll see if they can maintain that level of efficiency without their lead back for a while.