The Lions signed Isiah Pacheco this offseason to give Jahmyr Gibbs a real 1-2 punch in the backfield, even trading David Montgomery to Houston to clear the runway for him. That plan is on ice before it ever got going. Detroit placed Pacheco on injured reserve with a back injury Tuesday, and he's now out for at least the first 4 games of the season.
Lions placed RB Isiah Pacheco on injured reserve due to a back injury that now will sideline him for at least four games.
The wire moved fast on this one, with Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter all confirming the same grim timeline within minutes of each other. That's the tell that this isn't a minor tweak — it's a real roster hole Detroit has to plug for a month, starting Week 1.
Pacheco spent 4 seasons in Kansas City and won 2 Super Bowls there before hitting free agency, but he wasn't the same explosive back after a broken fibula banged him up in 2024. Detroit still bet on him this spring, and now he's dealing with a fresh back issue on top of an MCL sprain he was already managing. Head coach Dan Campbell had been cagey about Pacheco's Week 1 status all camp, and this move answers that question the hard way.
#Lions placed Isiah Pacheco on reserve/injured, signed Tyler Conklin to 53, signed Elijah Klein and Dominic Lovett to the practice squad.
To fill the open roster spot, the Lions turned to tight end Tyler Conklin, who'd been released just days earlier and is now back on the 53-man roster. Detroit also added guard Elijah Klein and receiver Dominic Lovett to the practice squad in the same batch of moves, but Conklin's the one plugging an actual hole created here.
None of this really touches Gibbs, who's still the guy in Detroit's backfield no matter who's healthy behind him. The bigger question is who eats snaps as the change-of-pace back for the next month. Without Pacheco, that job now falls to Jacob Saylors behind Gibbs to open the season — a big jump in workload for a name that wasn't supposed to matter much in Week 1.
Pacheco can't return until Week 5 at the earliest, which lines up with Detroit's trip to face Arizona. Until then, this is Gibbs' backfield with a lot less depth behind him than the Lions drew up in March.