Lions Place RB Isiah Pacheco On IR

Injuries began to slow Pacheco during his third Chiefs season, and his first summer with the Lions has not brought a reprieve. Pacheco battled an MCL sprain in training camp, and Dan Campbell revealed recently a back injury is also affecting the free agency pickup. That will lead Pacheco back to IR, thinning Detroit’s backfield during a year in which the team broke up the Jahmyr Gibbs–David Montgomery duo.

With Gibbs emerging as one of the NFL’s best running backs — and now its highest-paid RB — the Lions traded Montgomery to the Texans. The older back is in line to be Houston’s Week 1 starter, while Gibbs will be set for a full workload in his fourth season. Pacheco was tracking to be Gibbs’ top backup, but these injuries are making the three-time Super Bowl performer difficult to trust.

A September 2024 fibula fracture sidetracked Pacheco’s Kansas City run, as the Chiefs brought back Kareem Hunt as a stopgap option. The Chiefs, however, extended Hunt’s second stint cut into Pacheco’s workload. The latter was not especially effective following his broken leg, and he missed four games last season as well. An MCL sprain paused Pacheco’s Chiefs contract year, bringing obvious concern about the same issue popping up during Lions camp.

Known for a violent running style and beating the odds as a seventh-round pick, Pacheco had bailed out the Chiefs for their first-round Clyde Edwards-Helaire whiff. The Rutgers product combined for 1,735 rushing yards during his first two seasons, helping Kansas City win back-to-back Super Bowls. Averaging 4.9 and 4.6 yards per carry in those seasons, Pacheco finished south of the four-yard mark in each of his next two. That helped lead to commanding only a one-year, $1.81MM Lions deal in March.

The Lions will go from three years of their “Sonic and Knuckles” RB pair to mostly inexperience behind Gibbs entering 2026. Former UDFA Jacob Saylors (two career carries) joins 2024 fourth-rounder Sione Vaki (seven totes in two seasons) and third-year UDFA Jabari Small (zero NFL games). The Lions do not currently have a running back on their practice squad.