Yahoo Sports With Jahmyr Gibbs in, is D’Andre Swift out in Detroit? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast
Yahoo Fantasy analyst Matt Harmon and Yahoo Sports senior NFL writer Charles McDonald discuss Detroit’s surprising decision to draft the Alabama running back, what it means for Swift — the former 2nd round pick from 2020 — and why it’s a strange move even if Gibbs is a success for the Lions. Hear the full conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast” - subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: You could have given me 1,000 guesses. I probably would have never guessed that Jahmyr Gibbs was-- I mean 1,000, obviously, I'm exaggerating. But it was very hard to see Jahmyr Gibbs being the guy there.
CHARLES MCDONALD: Is D'Andre Swift getting cut?
MATT HARMON: Oh dude, yeah. For our loser here, it's D'Andre Swift.
CHARLES MCDONALD: OK.
MATT HARMON: Jahmyr Gibbs is just like the-- he's the real version of what the idea of D'Andre Swift was. I don't know what your take on D'Andre Swift as a player is. But I would imagine there's--
CHARLES MCDONALD: He's fine.
MATT HARMON: I would imagine there's a 0% chance he's on this roster by the end of the weekend. I would ima-- he probably gets traded, I would guess, in the next couple of days.
CHARLES MCDONALD: This is way different than what Atlanta did with Bijan to me. Because the Lions, they just paid David Montgomery. So obviously, he's going to get a big chunk of carries. So, did you just use the 12th pick on a part-time back, like a committee-level back? To me, I don't know. There's only a finite amount of touches that can go around.
So, I thought that this was just a bizarre use of a first round pick for them, because--
MATT HARMON: Really bizarre.
CHARLES MCDONALD: They already had a certain amount of touches in a pretty significant way slotted for David Montgomery, because they just paid him. And I know that-- you know, look at three years, $18 million on the grand total of NFL contracts, it's not much. But for running back contracts, is not like insignificant money anymore sadly for them.
It was just a weird, weird pick to me. Because I don't really see a path, barring injury, where Jahmyr Gibbs gets enough touches to make this worth the pick that they just gave up. At least with the Falcons, I can say, dude, they're going to run Bijan into the ground every single year, until he can't run anymore. He's going to be the guy.
But with Gibbs, they already have a plan to split this up. Is that really worth a top 12 pick?
MATT HARMON: Right. Like yeah, Tyler Allgeier had a nice rookie season. But he was a day three draft pick. You haven't spent significant resources in the running back room. This is your first one there. The Lions, I mean, D'Andre Swift was not drafted by this front office and this coaching staff. And they have told us with their actions, for a couple of years now, that they don't particularly like D'Andre Swift, or view him as highly as people in the fantasy world or whatever do.
CHARLES MCDONALD: Yeah, I think don't like might be correct.
MATT HARMON: Yeah. They don't like him. They don't like that he can't stay healthy. They don't like-- they just don't like him as a player, for whatever reason. But if they're looking for this archetype of player, Jahmyr Gibbs is that dude. Bizarre pick, I have a tough time, just like you, seeing. I mean, maybe Jahmyr Gibbs can be awesome, and this could still look like a weird pick, because of the David Montgomery thing, who they just gave a three-year deal to.
So yeah, it feels like a weird one. And yeah, the obvious loser here at running back is definitely D'Andre Swift, who I imagine is going to be on the move here in a couple of days.
CHARLES MCDONALD: Yeah.
