Who's laughing now? Lions' Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs continue rookie hot streaks

Detroit — A large portion of NFL media laughed at Brad Holmes after the Detroit Lions general manager made his first selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, taking Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs at No. 12 overall after trading down from No. 6 with the Arizona Cardinals.

The reaction to his third pick — tight end Sam LaPorta, from Iowa — was more confusion than anything, but there were undoubtedly some laughs being passed around over the fact he left Notre Dame’s Michael Mayer on the board, who was at one time a projected first-rounder and went one pick later to the Las Vegas Raiders.

Who’s laughing now? Dan Campbell’s 10-4 Lions, surely. The magic number is now at one for Detroit to clinch its first NFC North title, after LaPorta and Gibbs combined for five touchdowns in Saturday night’s 42-17 win over the Denver Broncos at Ford Field on Saturday night. When Holmes traded down from No. 6 to take Gibbs, he added the No. 34 pick from Arizona, which allowed him to select LaPorta.

“I’m just going to bring it back to Brad Holmes; it’s a hell of a job by him, once again,” Campbell said. “Took a lot of criticism for those two picks, but they look like they’re OK, so I’m glad we got them.”

LaPorta hauled in a career-best three touchdowns on five catches for 56 yards, while Gibbs ran for 100 yards on 11 carries (9.1 average) for a touchdown. Gibbs also had a nine-yard receiving touchdown while passing 1,000 yards from scrimmage in his rookie season.

After the game, Lions quarterback Jared Goff called LaPorta and Gibbs “two of the best rookies I’ve ever been around.”

“What they handle mentally and what they do every Sunday for us, the way they practice, the way they’re pros, everything. They’re as good as it gets,” Goff said.

The touchdowns were earned, too. 

On LaPorta’s first, to open the scoring, he caught a ball near the sideline, made Broncos linebacker Josey Jewell miss, then rumbled past a handful of other defenders on his way to the end zone for an 18-yard score. Next Gen Stats gave LaPorta a 3.1% chance to score on the play.

And then there was the run from Gibbs to ice the game after the Broncos made it a 28-10 game to end the third. He took a pitch to the left, got outside, and flew up the sideline before running over Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton while barreling into the end zone for a 12-yard score with 12:12 to go in the game.

“It was really fun when stuff started clicking because everybody was getting the ball, everybody was scoring,” Gibbs said. “We was just having fun out there.”

LaPorta’s night continued pushing him into rarified air for his position. He now owns the most receiving touchdowns (nine) by a rookie in Lions history and is tied for the third-most receiving touchdowns by a rookie tight end, trailing only Hall-of-Famers Rob Gronkowski (10) and Mike Ditka (12). 

“It was really cool,” LaPorta said. “I always say I can’t do it without my teammates. I certainly can’t; there’s 10 other guys out there with me. … It was just a really good day, really good day for the team.”

Gibbs, meanwhile, continues making a little history of his own. He and David Montgomery became the first running-back duo in franchise history to eclipse 750 rushing yards each. Gibbs, the rookie, had 692 rushing yards coming into the night and Montgomery had already accomplished the feat with 770. 

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi