In his rookie season for the Detroit Lions, Jahmyr Gibbs produced 1,261 yards on 234 combined rushing attempts and receptions in 2023. In his second season, the former Alabama running back produced 1,929 yards on 302 touches.

Can the Lions get even more out of Gibbs in his third season?

“Whatever they want me to do, I mean, I’m willing to do it,” Gibbs said at Detroit’s training camp. “I just want to win a Super Bowl ultimately. So they told me I’d line up at safety some this year, so I’ll be doing that — a little nickel.”

Gibbs was just joking with reporters, of course. The Lions aren’t about to turn the two-time Pro Bowl ball-carrier into a two-way player.

But they still could expand Gibbs’ game.

“I’m being split out, like, way more than I was the past two years,” Gibbs said. “That’s good. That’s going to be fun. I’ve been waiting on that.”

Gibbs already was among the six running backs with at least 100 receptions across the previous two seasons. He and the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson are the only ball-carriers in that group who also had at least 1,900 rushing yards in 2023 and 2024.

Making plans for Gibbs in the 2025 season is a new offensive coordinator. The Chicago Bears hired Ben Johnson as their head coach this offseason. The Lions filled the vacancy with John Morton, the Denver Broncos’ passing-game coordinator for the past two seasons.

While Morton is new to Gibbs, he is not new to Detroit. Morton worked with Johnson on the Lions’ coaching staff in 2022.

“They was here at the same time a couple years ago, so, I mean, it’s not a lot that’s changed,” Gibbs said of Detroit’s playbook. “But like I said, little tweaks here and there, but it’s good.”

Johnson took with him Antwaan Randle El, the Lions’ wide-receivers coach, to handle that job and work as assistant head coach with the Bears. Detroit shifted its assistant head coach, Scottie Montgomery, from running-backs coach to wide-receivers coach, then hired Texas running-backs coach Tashard Choice for that spot on Dan Campbell’s staff.

Choice is not new to Gibbs, having coached him in 2020 and 2021 at Georgia Tech.

“Nothing much has changed at all, you know,” Gibbs said. “It’s funny because I was 17 back then and now I’m 23, but nothing’s changed. I still talked to him over the years, even when I was at Bama and my first two years here. So, yeah, it was picked up where we left off.”

At 15-2, Detroit had the best regular-season record in the NFC last season. But a season after reaching the NFC Championship Game, the Lions lost to the Washington Commanders 45-31 in their playoff opener.

“We know what we want to do,” Gibbs said about the 2025 season. “Not too much talking needs to be said about it, so we’re just going to work to try to get that.”

Detroit plays in the NFL’s first preseason game when the Lions square off against the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night in Canton, Ohio, in the annual Hall of Fame Game.

After four preseason games, Detroit will open its regular-season schedule on Sept. 7 against the Green Bay Packers.

Whenever Gibbs makes his first appearance, he’ll be wearing a new number after being in No. 26 for two seasons. Gibbs switched to No. 0 for 2025.

That number had belonged to Terrion Arnold in 2024. But for his second season, the cornerback has switched to No. 6 in memory of former Alabama teammate Khyree Jackson. Jackson died in a traffic accident on July 6, 2024.

“I just didn’t like 26,” Gibbs said. “When I got drafted, that was the lowest number available.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.