Allen Park — When fall rolls around, the football world will be waiting for former Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs to justify his draft spot.
But internally, the Detroit Lions are putting no such pressure on the electrifying 21-year-old rusher after he was selected 12th overall in this year’s NFL Draft.
“He can’t ride the ebb and flow,” Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said. “He’s gotta stay calm. He’s not going to perform as well as some people would think that he should, and he’s not going to perform as low as some people think he’s going to be.
“So we’re going to try to support him in a way, and if we can just keep him involved academically in the football part of it, it’s very hard to get out of line if you’re doing what you’re supposed to do on a daily basis.”
Gibbs is under an abnormal amount of pressure for a rookie running back. Not only is it rare to see a player at his position to go so high in the draft, but the Lions traded back to take the second running back off the board there.
All’s well that ends well — if Gibbs turns out to be a success, his draft position will be long forgotten (that is, until it’s time to decide what to do with his next contract). But if he flops or gets injured, well — it’s egg on Brad Holmes’ face.
Again — all of this is outside of his control and not really worth thinking about, which is why the Lions are encouraging him to just block out the noise. Rest assured, Montgomery said, that he’ll be prepared to face whatever comes his way starting Week 1.
“We’re going to take care of him, but we’re also going to make it hard for him. This is tough. Football is tough, the game is tough. You have to deal with some of the criticism that comes with it, but you also have to deal with some of the success, and he’s going to have both this year,” Montgomery said.
Add in the fact the Lions are planning to use Gibbs unlike almost every running back before him — featuring him in whole bunch of sets out wide as a receiver — and it’s easy to see why this summer might be a grind.
“He has to get aligned. First thing for a receiver that no one really talks about is that there’s multiple alignments on the field,” Montgomery said. “Whether it’s minus-two hash, two, all these different alignments per route and then per run, there’s just a lot to it.
“So he does have a little bit more (on his plate) than a normal back coming in, but thankfully he’s done it before and then also thankfully I’ve been in a lot of different roles and situations to be able to see splits and alignments a little bit different.”
For Gibbs to have a successful camp, Montgomery said, he just needs to “be physical.” Within this requirement is a peek at the philosophy that Montgomery is instilling into the room.
“I know this guy’s skillset from a speed, quickness, mental (standpoint). I want him to be physical. If you’re a tough team, you don’t get toughness from the big guys,” Montgomery said. “The big guys are going to be tough. If you’re a tough team, your small guys are tough.”
When it comes to toughness, that may be the one thing Gibbs doesn’t need to develop over the next couple of months.
“Absolutely he has (toughness), and he’s got a little bit of an edge that people don’t know because he’s quiet at times, but once we get in the building and behind closed doors, he does have a different level of that,” Montgomery said.
“You can’t play at the University of Alabama if you don’t have a level of physicality to you. I’ll just be honest. … Coach (Nick Saban) does a good job of keeping the drills going and coaching different drills but also making guys understand that part of the competitive process is just not this pajamas and running around.
“It’s actually putting pads on one another, so you go down there and you play at a high level and you get great marks from coach Saban, that’s a good start for physicality.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @nolanbianchi